Mayor Jerry P. Treñas said the implementation of Iloilo City’s Local Public Transport Route Plan (LPTRP) will push through on Sunday, June 12.

This, despite the appeal of some jeepney drivers and operators to delay the implementation of the plan.

“If there are really problems, we can immediately resolve it. We will never know until we implement it,” Treñas assured.

According to the mayor, the implementation will be suspended if problems that may arise during the implementation cannot be addressed immediately.

Under LPTRP, provincial jeepneys are prohibited from entering the city. They are only up to the designated transport terminals.

Only authorized cargo trucks/jeepneys will be allowed to transport products into the city.

Earlier, the Metro Iloilo Transport Service Cooperative (MITSCOO) and the Iloilo City Alliance of Drivers Association (ICADA) appealed to Treñas to suspend the implementation as they have limited number of public utility jeepneys (PUJ) units to transport provincial passengers from the terminals to the city.

MITSCOOP chairman Josemarie De Los Reyes and ICADA president Nicasio Dalisay Jr. said they have loan applications for 148 modernized jeepney units with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and 180 more units with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP). They are waiting for the release of their Letter of Guarantee (LOG) next month.

“Those units will be deployed to various routes in Iloilo City that are not being serviced right now. (But) we have a problem with the Land Transportation Office (LTO). It is slow to release of our registration due to their system problems,” they added.

But according to Jeck Conlu, Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO) head, the city cannot delay the LPTRP implementation especially that it has already reached the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.

He noted that almost all transport cooperatives in the city and province of Iloilo are already prepared for the implementation.

Also contained in LPTRP are the 24 new and rationalized transport routes in the city.IMT

Photo by Lew Dls