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MANILA, Philippines -- About 2,000 The DOTr would then decide which ones
jeepney drivers staged a protest caravan should be traversed by jeeps, buses,
from Quezon Memorial Circle to trains, and tricycles.
Mendiola on Monday to protest the
proposed phaseout of jeepneys and small Under this scheme, said San Mateo,
jeepney franchises, which they said will jeepney franchises would be cancelled,
affect 650,000 drivers and 250,000 new routes opened, and new franchises
operators. created.
Phase out
DENR Secretary Ramon Paje Jr. has
recommended that vehicles older than
15 years be phased out to improve air
quality, particularly in Metro Manila.
SHOULD CARS OLDER THAN 15 YEARS BE As an alternative, he suggested that
SCRAPPED? older vehicles be banned from major
roads that are usually clogged with
This week, the Land Transportation traffic.
Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB)
locked horns with the providers of school Heavier traffic means more idling time
shuttle services over the age of their for vehicles on the road. This leads to
vehicles. The LTFRB has mandated that more emissions, and older vehicles have
shuttles older than 15 years should be more toxic emissions, he said.
phased out in favor of newer, Euro 4
emissions compliant vehicles. Should That newer vehicles would be safer and
such a ban on older vehicles be imposed cleaner is not being disputed, even by
for other types as well? the school shuttle operators. Their
contention is that the 15-year age limit is
Right now, the Philippines does not too low, as school shuttles may not be
impose an age limit to engines when it running the whole day and for long
comes to registration. In fact, older distances, unlike other utility vehicles.
vehicles are somewhat favored as the
cost of registration goes down for older The reverse would be true of trucks and
vehicles. Newer ones pay more and are buses. These run for many hours
required to fork out a bigger amount in straight, and travel hundreds of
the beginning by lumping together the kilometers on a single journey. For trucks
first three years of payment. and buses, the 15-year age limit would
be applicable. The age limit would have
to be counted from the original date of limit. But the LTO has proven incapable of
manufacture, and not when the vehicle implementing regulations based on
was imported to the Philippines. emissions and roadworthiness, so an age
limit would be easier to follow.
Used trucks and buses that have run for
10 or more years are routinely registered Vintage cars
as new. Trucks and buses are designed to What about that classic sports car in your
ferry heavy loads and passengers, and garage? Vintage motor vehicles (defined
thus should be subject to more stringent as 40 years and older) can be restricted
regulations. for use on certain days such as weekends
and holidays. This was precisely the
Not a day goes by without a report of a subject of an administrative order issued
truck crashing due to failing brakes or by the Land Transportation Office.
suspension components. Even worse are
buses that cause multiple deaths to But as with everything in the Philippines,
passengers and pedestrians, sometimes special interest groups started raising a
due to component failure. fuss, and soon the order was put on the
back burner.
Motioncars and Inquirer Motoring
columnist Botchi Santos has suggested a The logical conclusion must be: Older
seven- or eight-year age limit on cars, in the range of 15 years and up,
vehicles, particularly for taxi cabs. should be scrapped. The alternative is to
tax older vehicles prohibitively so that
Proving roadworthiness registering them will become less
He suggested that reducing the number attractive, allowing owners to opt for
of old vehicles on the road will help free newer vehicles instead.
up traffic and reduce crashes due to poor
maintenance. Such a scrapping law
would also stimulate new vehicle sales.
Loss of livelihood
Transport groups fear that since most of
the jeeps they use are over 15 years old,
TRANSPORT STRIKE FEB 27, 2017 despite being in good road-worthy
conditions, a lot from their sector would Ang mga jeepney driver ay mala-
lose their means of livelihood. The e-jeep manggagawa kumpara sa mga bus
being offered by the government are too driver na manggagawa kasi may
expensive for small operators to buy. employee-employer relationship sa mga
They also have doubts about its reliability bus company habang walang employee-
and mileage. Even with loans from the employer relationship sa mga jeepney
government, the E-jeeps would only driver. Karamihan dating magsasaka,
contribute to an increase in fares as the iniwan ang lupa at pumunta sa sentrong
costs would be passed on to the lunsod.
commuters. And with the additional
requirements for operators to have at He went on to add:
least 10 units to avail of the loans, this San Mateo estimated the daily gross
will only force the small operators out of income of jeepney drivers on a 24-hour-
business and deprive them of a means of run at Php500-600 or only equivalent to
living. a Php250 per day take-home income for
a 12-hour-shift, an amount way below
Public safety vs means of livelihood the minimum wage standard for workers.
The government claims that the phase He said there was no standard
out of old jeeps is to ensure the boundary or amount given to the
commuters have a safe public transport. jeepney operator. Walang fixed amount,
Statistics on road safety, in particular, depende sa usapan, depende sa seating
accidents involving PUJs are not readily capacity, route, sitwasyon ng trapik. For
available online. The only stats Ive instance, short routes would require
managed to find is from a post by Top payments for operators as low as Php600
Gear from data gathered by DOTC in while long routes would require Php1,000
2012! The bit of statistics relevant to or more as boundary for a 24-hour-run.
road safety are as follows:
The struggle for a more just means of
79% Road crash fatalities caused by modernizing the public transport sector
driver error against the rights of the jeep drivers and
11% Road crash fatalities caused by operators to make a living has reached
defective vehicles the Court of Appeals where in August of
2016 it sided with the government ruling
With no data on how many of these road that in the name public safety, the
accidents due to defective vehicles governments right to police and regulate
involved public utility jeepneys, we really public transport must prevail over the
cant say if 15-year-old jeepneys are rights of the few to earn a living.
really a safety risk for the riding public.
Given that there are far more road Hence the transport strike, the 2nd this
accidents caused by driver error. one February, that will take place tomorrow.
could say it doesnt matter if your vehicle
is old or brand new. Sympathize with the jeep drivers and
operators
Mr. George San Mateo, national president Tomorrow will be another difficult day for
of the militant Pagkakaisa ng mga many of us commuters. While some
Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor schools have already announced class
Nationwide (Piston) in an article by Fred cancellations for tomorrow to spare their
Dabu in UP Forum, explains why jeep students and faculty of the
drivers are among the poor and inconvenience the transport strike would
vulnerable of our society: cause, it does nothing to address the
issue. Sure some of us would be able to
take a taxi, an Uber, a GrabCar to get to
work tomorrow all while being annoyed
and angry at the striking jeepney drivers,
it also does nothing to solve the issue.
While most jeepney groups just oppose a Under Section 46 of the CAA, penalties
phaseout, the newly formed National slapped must be accompanied with
Jeepney Federation for Environmental education on reducing emissions. Section
Sustainable Transport (NJFEST), headed 11 also mandates that, along with
by Ronald Baroidan, also opposes a stricter emission standards, the
phaseout, but seriously wants to comply government must make available all the
with the Clean Air Act (CAA) and even information on pollution-control
names itself after the Department of techniques, best practices on
Transportations (DOTr) own program on maintenance, technologies, etc., to allow
motorists to make more intelligent incentive to refiners, but average PAH
choices that match their needs. After all, content in diesel in Europe is still about
pollution is caused by many factors, like 4.5 percent, with a few still high at 10
poor engine design, poor lubrication, percent. Bringing it down to 6 percent
poor air-fuel ratio and poor fuel quality, costs the industry in Europe about 312
etc. million, and will increase costs for every
drop in PAH content to as high 2.249
Few will know, fuel is it. billion at 1-percent content.
As to fuel, there is increasing evidence In short, what we do not see how diesel
poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the is produced behind the scenes, somehow
chemical compounds heavily present in comes out now from behind from the
light cycle oil (LCO), which is currently tailpipe emissions. But science now tells
blended with diesel, is reportedly the us that when a vehicle farts from behind,
main culprit behind emissions. these can still be measured, even if
many toxic fumes, like carbon monoxide,
LCOs or heavy cycle oils, on the other are odorless and invisible.
hand, are the waste by-products from
refining crude oil into gasoline, diesel, Tax from polluters pay principle.
kerosene, etc. Instead of storing them, For Finance Secretary Carlos D.
which is costly, refiners worldwide find it Domingez III, perhaps, it is easier to
more convenient to pass on this problem justify his planned carbon tax on the
to consumers by mixing them with diesel polluters pay principle, rather than insist
to a maximum blend of 11 percent of on a massive add-on excise tax on oil,
total diesel weight. now that prices are prone to increase
with peso devaluation.
For so long, few will understand this fact
in the fuel we consume. But with the Another income-generating tax is a
information explosion congestion tax on vehicles, which is
ushered in by the Internet and the surge captured through higher parking fees
in environmentalism, oil companies can solely on private cars, thus reducing the
no longer proverbially sweep their dirt volume of vehicles on the road. This will
under the rug. help solve traffic and reverse the trend
Oil companies may say this is a toward the increasing share of vehicles
sweeping statement or accusation, but out of total air pollution in Metro Manila
the facts are all over the Internet, and from 70 percent over two to three
that PAHs or LCOs are considered decades ago to 88 percent and, finally, to
unwanted oils. 92 percent as of 2015. This is due to
increasing volume of vehicles and the
Whats behind, comes out behind? transfer of factories to the countryside.
A study done by the VTT Technical
Research Centre of Finland shows almost Both tax-reform ideas are worth
a direct correlation of the effects of PAHs deliberating in separate discussions.
or LCOs on emissions. By reducing PAH Another issue worth reviewing is the
content in diesel by 80 percent from 5- Special Vehicle Pollution Control Fund,
percent weight content to only 1 percent, which is a mere 7.5 percent of the road
PAH-related emissions also dropped users tax, but remains untapped and has
massively by a range to as much as 80 accumulated to about P8.5 billion. This
percent. Sweden A-1 diesel is now down must be used to fund many
to a PAH-content of 0.02 percent with unimplemented provisions of the law, like
Finland at 0.2 percent owing to a tax Section 15 on Air Pollution Research, so
as academic organizations, like demand, financing issues, and even
Researchers for Clean Air, led by Mylene environmental concerns.
Cayetano, PhD, and others, need not
spend their own personal money to fund Transport is the second biggest
research, and many more. contributor of greenhouse gases, but
thats only about 37% of total emission
Even without enough budget, EMB-NCR levels. Of that 37%, 80% come from
Director Minda Osorio, who has lumad jeeps, so we really want to modernize the
Manobo roots from Mindanao, was fleet. We want to get them off the
decisive enough to approve instantly at road, Bonifacio said.
first meeting NJFESTs clean-air program,
called Jeepney Environment & Energy While the DOTC is mulling a voluntary
Efficiency Program, that will also involve implementation of the new rule in 2016,
academe. Bonifacio said operators can expect its
Taking from President Duterte and full implementation a year after that.
Environment Secretary Regina Paz L.
Lopezs decisiveness, Osorio noted that Jeep operators can still use their old units
an action plan becomes more effective, for one more year, but they have to
if we can act soon. either present a new vehicle or proof of a
loan when they register their units.
Notes:
+ An excise tax is an indirect tax Why the gradual implementation? With
charged on the sale of a particular good. more than 150,000 units nationwide
Indirect means the tax is not directly expected to reach the age limit by 2016,
paid by an individual consumer; instead, manufacturers wont be able to keep up
the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) levies with the demand.
the tax on the producer or merchant,
who passes the tax onto the consumer Supply is an issue. The manufacturers
by including it in the product's price. maximum output is 27,000 new units a
year, way less than the 200,000 current
TO IMPROVE TRAFFIC IN 2016, DOTC fleet size of jeepneys nationwide. In
TO OVERHAUL BUS, JEEP SYSTEMS Metro Manila, it's about 60,000 jeepneys.
So what were trying to do is a phased
Jeeps: Phasing out of old vehicles approach, Bonifacio said.
Theyre regarded as the kings of the road
in the Philippines, and are often Financing is also another concern. The
appropriated as symbols of the countrys agency is talking to banks to negotiate
colorful history and culture. But the flexible terms for jeep operators to obtain
jeepney, a relic of World War II, has to loans, but theyre also studying the
keep up with the times. option of buying back the old jeeps,
selling them for scrap value, and
As part of its jeepney modernization providing P200,000 to banks as
program, the DOTC plans to impose an downpayments for the jeepney
age limit on jeeps. Those that are more operators loans.
than 15 years old will have to be taken
off the roads, and operators will have to Fleet management
replace them with brand new vehicles. Phasing out of old jeeps is only one part
of the DOTCs modernization program.
The decision on the 15-year-rule was not The other component is figuring out how
arbitrary, Bonifacio said. It took into to deploy the jeeps efficiently and
account how supply can keep up with manage their operations.
Bonifacio said part of the fleet
management system that the
department is currently studying is a
common dispatch program, automated
fare collection system, and CCTV and
GPS systems in place.