[VIDEO] DOTr Secretary Jaime Bautista on modernizing the jeepney

If the Department of Transportation has its way, more than30 percent of jeepneys will be off the road starting this year. Those are the vehicles that private operators did not include in new jeepney cooperatives and corporations required by the DOTr. That will be the first stage of the government’s controversial jeepney modernization program. The older, decrepit vehicles will then be replaced by newer models, some no longer resembling the iconic back-entry designs of the traditional jeepney.

Modernization is more than new vehicles, Transportation Secretary Bautista is quick to emphasize in his conversation with Howie Severino. Public transport routes will be studied and “rationalized,” so that the number of public utility vehicles will be adjusted according to the volume of commuters along those routes.

Despite the reduction of jeepneys plying existing routes, Bautista assures that there will be no commuter crisis, as he says the remaining jeepneys will be more than enough to handle the demand. Even with the modern jeepneys, Bautista asserts that the future of public transport lies not in road vehicles but in trains, as he gives us an overview of the rail projects in the pipeline.

Isn’t it a disadvantage for chauffeur-driven officials like him to be making decisions about public transport? Secretary Bautista has a ready answer.

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