‘King of the road’: Operators of the vintage passenger jeepney in Metro Manila have been ordered to replace their fleet with modern vehicles. — AP
Brightly painted Jeepney public transport trucks are an iconic symbol of the Philippines, but minibus firm boss Freddie Hernandez backs plans to force them off the road.
He was among the first transport operators to comply with government orders to phase out the beloved but elderly utility vehicles and replace them with safer, greener buses.
“We saw the benefits of modernising our units in terms of reducing their carbon emissions,” said Hernandez, the chair of a transport service cooperative in Metro Manila.
Other public transport leaders, however, say the programme is saddling them with unmanageable costs and will upend the livelihood of some 61,000 traditional jeepney drivers, as they face a looming deadline to modernise their fleets.
Jeepney mini-trucks were originally created from abandoned US military jeeps after World War Two, and later reproduced by Filipinos to meet Manila’s transport needs.
The open-air minibuses, which are festooned with bright decorations, pictures and slogans, are commonly known as the “Kings of the Road” and are the most popular form of public transport in the country.
But they have been pinpointed as a major pollution source, accounting for almost half of airbourne particulate matter in the Metro Manila region, according to a 2018 study by the National Centre for Transportation Studies at the University of the Philippines.
In 2017, the transport ministry ordered jeepneys aged 15 years or older to be replaced with modern vehicles imported from neighbouring Asian countries.
The government has extended an initial deadline of March 2020 three times due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but on Feb 21 it announced operators must comply by June 30, or risk losing their franchise to operate. — Reuters
