1. Mayor Rolando Uy presiding a meeting in his office with transport group leaders on Thursday, June 5. (CIO photo)
TheMindanaoToday.com | Mayor grants demand of transport protesters
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – The implementation of a three-year old Local Public Transport Route Plan (LPTRP) that kicked off on Tuesday, June 3, has been put on hold, just two days after due to mounting complaints from drivers and commuters.
City Mayor Rolando Uy issued on Thursday, June 5, Executive Order No. 1029-2025A, creating a committee to look into the effects of the 78 routes, as detailed in the LTPRP which is part of the government’s Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) that started eight years ago.
Uy’s directive came after presiding a meeting with leaders of transport groups in the presence of Vice Mayor Jocelyn Rodriguez, Roads and Traffic Administration (RTA) chief Nonito Oclarit, and a Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) representative.
The consensus was to suspend the LPTRP implementation, pending review based on the findings of the newly-formed committee.
Among the common complaints aired included many new routes are longer compared to the old one, yet the fare rates remain the same. For commuters, many said they are to spend more time and money because they need to take two rides to reach their destination.
On Wednesday, June 4, in a Meet the Press forum at SM Downtown mall, LTFRB Spokesperson James Andrade said the LTPRP implementation of 78 routes is on a dry run. He said these were the results of a feasibility study in 2018 and Household Interview Survey (HIS) in 2021.
Of the 78 routes, 55 are in District 1 (Southwest) and 23 in District 2 (Northwest) with the Cagayan de Oro River as the natural demarcation.
Andrade said they have given a copy each of the 80 barangays in the city so that village officials could help in informing their constituents on the LPTRP implementation.
Marianne Ulep, financial analyst and LPTRP focal person of LTFRB 10, said they are urging PUV operators and drivers to comply first by plying on routes assigned to them. She said that complaining on the basis of their convenience is not valid because the LPTRP is intended for the convenience of the riding public.
This, even as about a hundred units of PUVs, mostly of the traditional vehicles type, that used to ply the Carmen-Limketkai Route 1 and 2, were nowhere to be found, their drivers were on the street, urging their colleagues from other routes to join them in protesting the LTPRP implementation.
“Comply first, then let’s discuss later,” said Ulep and recalled that since 2017 they have been meeting PUV operators and drivers repeatedly informing them on the process of consolidation. They should have joined a cooperative or formed a corporation so that they would be included in the route-specific slots in the approved the LPTRP.
The 78 routes, she said, did not come from them as these were submitted by the city government, as embodied under City Ordinance No. 14337-2002 on June 27, 2022 in support of the national government’s PUVMP through the Department of Transportation (DoTr).
Through the LTPRP, it is hoped to achieve two objectives: to decongest traffic and to provide convenience to the riding public. [Uriel Quilinguing/MT]
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