Jeepney drivers petition SC for help gov’t ‘discrimination’

Drivers of the country’s public utility jeepneys (PUJs) sought on Tuesday, Sept. 29, the Supreme Court’s (SC) intervention on the alleged government discrimination on their operations despite the easing up of lockdowns in many areas amid the corona virus disease pandemic.

In a petition filed by the officers and members of the National Confederation of Transport Workers Union (NCTU), the SC was asked to nullify 16 government issuances that affected PUJ operations in the country.

They asked the SC to conduct oral arguments on their petition so they could better amplify their plight.

Named respondents in the petition were Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III as chairperson of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei B. Nograles, Martin B. Delgra III as chairperson of the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB), and Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Arthur P. Tugade.

The petitioners said “the respondents’ actions of excluding traditional PUJs when all other PUVs were allowed, including modernized jeepneys, run contrary to the equal protection clause of the Constitution.”

The petitioners told the SC that the government -- particularly the LTFRB, the DOTr and the IATF-EID – “prohibited petitioners from plying the roads on all areas under the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in March 2020….”

“Even as the government eased quarantine measures and gradually allowed other public utility vehicles (PUVs) back on the road, traditional PUJs were placed last in priority—or not at all,” they said.