Duterte could end jeepney phaseout debate
IF he really wants it, President Duterte can end the debate about the unconscionable and harebrained jeepney phaseout plan right now. Yes, he can.
Duterte can do it if he makes it an administration priority to allot 1350billion in order to purchase 200,000 new, modern, environment-friendly jeepneys. Or he can order his economic team to allot 187.5-billion every year for this very important program.
The Department of Transportation should be able to justify this price tag. For instance, it gives tens of billions of pesos to the MRT Corp. in “subsidy” and “bailouts.” For a change, the economists at the Department of Finance and the Department of Budget and Management should exercise their brainpower to provide funding for essential, indispensable mass transport.
If the DOTr, DOF, and DBM can allot hundreds of billions in taxpayer money to finance Big Businesses in PPP and BBB, surely they wouldn’t be stingy in giving the same treatment to jeepney drivers of the Philippines.
There are many possible sources of funds for jeepney modernization. For instance, the Duterte government could renegotiate the agreement with the Ayala-Pangilinan LRT Manila consortium. At the very least, we would be able to collect rather than exempt 164-billion in real property taxes from these oligarchs. Also, the government could end the 134.9-billion subsidy for this business of the Ayala-Pangilinan project.
The combined 198.9-billion alone can be used to purchase 70,642 new, modern, and environment-friendly jeepneys at a unit price of 11.4-million.
For the remainder amounting to 1251.1-billion, the Duterte government could be bold and creative:
Reduce the budget for debt servicing for 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. To illustrate: The government programmed 1647.27 billion for debt payment in 2017 – 1334.87 billion for interest payment, and 1312.40 billion for amortization. Duterte could always ask his economists to restructure or renegotiate the terms of some of obligations to carve out the needed funds for the jeepneys.
Reduce or abolish tax breaks for billionaires and multimillionaires.
Reduce or abolish the 1800-million budget for Operation Double Barrel.
Take back the 14.8-billion subsidy for MRT Corp. for 2018.
Take back the 11.8-billion budget for the LRT-MRT Common Station, and let the private sector finance it.
Abolish the 1124-million budget for US military bases under EDCA.
Recover the Marcos ill-gotten wealth.
This solution will make the matapobre recoil in horror. In their warped sense of the national budget, they can be galante about our taxpayer money only when it comes to the oligarchs but are stingy with our poor. But this “austerity” on direct public services is exactly what caused our jeepney drivers to remain poor.
Ever since inventive Filipinos took the US military jeeps and turned them into the national mass transport mode we now know, government has never given jeepney drivers and operators any direct subsidy or assistance. (The only government aid they’ve received is the paltry fuel subsidy.) Had successive governments not neglected this informal sector under the dogma of “austerity” and simple “kasakiman,” our jeepney drivers and operators would’ve been able to upgrade the jeepneys, and our local jeepney manufacturers would’ve been spared from bankruptcy.
If the state invests in jeepneys, the demand from local jeepney manufacturers would rise. They could expand operations, take advantage of Filipino professionals for R&D, and employ tens of thousands. More funds could be directed for this important Filipino industry.
There are only two possible financiers of this expensive 1350-billion jeepney modernization. The first is the government, whose annual budget is an average of 13-trillion. The second is the oligarchy through its banks and its growing interests in transportation.
Right now, what Duterte and the DOTr wants is for jeepney drivers and operators – mostly poor, categorized as part of the informal sector, and cannot normally qualify for loans – to embrace highly possible debt bondage with the oligarchs’ banks.
We could be pretty sure these banks are preparing “special deals” for jeepney drivers that would jack up the total price, extend the amortization period, require new collateral, and set the stage for the private takeover of entire fleets or routes from drivers and operators who cannot possibly sustain the expensive modernization.
At the risk of myself being seen as excessively generous, I think Duterte can still apologize and take back his harsh words against the poor jeepney drivers who number around 500,000. Duterte has the power to end the debate and improve the lives of 500,000 families. Otherwise, Duterte would be giving them the axe, sentencing them to a life of even worse poverty because they would lose their livelihood.
We all want a modern, future-ready, adequate, and environment-friendly mass transportation system. Duterte cannot just make it appear out of thin air. He and his economic team can no longer fool us into believing that the problem (the oligarchs’s disastrous and yet profitable control of the transportation sector) is the solution.
If there’s any investment worth pouring taxpayer money on, it is mass transportation. The state must invest in the jeepney drivers and operators who – to be honest – keep this nation moving, and on whom cities and especially towns depend on for mass transportation.
Nobody disagrees that it is time for the Philippines to modernize and to invest in jeepneys. It is half a century overdue. Duterte should put money where his mouth is and lead the way.