Profiling of drivers, operators affected by BRT to start Monday

CEBU, Philippines - The profiling of about 3,000 jeepney operators and drivers in Cebu City who will be affected by the Bus Rapid Transit system will start Monday next week.

 The Base-Line Survey for PUJ operators will run from February 16 to March 13. It will be facilitated by the Regional Franchising and Regulatory Board as ordered by its chairman, lawyer Winston Ginez.

 Within the period, the affected stakeholders are encouraged to fill out personal data forms at LTFRB-7 to avail of the training and employment assistance program through the intervention of Technical Education Skills and Development Authority.

The profiling includes the personal information of the drivers and operators; what the driver wants to pursue for an alternative livelihood; personal attainment; concerns; among others.

Cebu-BRT Office head lawyer Rafael Yap said the data collection is vital as it would show the target and affected audience; percentage and number of recipients; and comprehensive and mitigating factors to help the affected public.

He added that it will help them come up with an appropriate and practical social management plan for those who will be displaced by the said development.

Other identified measures are: helping operators to move to other franchise routes including feeder routes to the BRT; offering existing transport operators the opportunity to be involved in service contracts for the BRT service; and assisting industry workers to find employment within the new bus system.

LTFRB-7 is required to submit the statistical or ana-lysis reporter together with the survey form to the national office on March 31.

The introduction of high quality buses operating on a dedicated bus lane will mean that some jeepney routes would be taken out by 2018.

There are 2,614 jeepney drivers (1,307 jeepney units) to be affected by the BRT implementation, as well as 912 operators, 1,191 franchises and 22 routes.

 “We want to address all the concerns sa PUJ industry, drivers operators and their family members. We want to know these people individually not as sectors or groups but on individual basis para makadungog ta sa tingog sa minority,” he said.

“There’s no political fallout on this because no one has touched the PUJ industry in the way the BRT project will,” he added.

Yap said enforcers and personnel of CITOM and LTFRB will distribute flyers on the Base-Line Survey for drivers’ guidelines.

“So far nahisgotan (with LTFRB and TESDA yesterday morning) nga mag-distribute og forms sa street and make it available sa roadside,” he said.

 Yap said the undertaking is an offshoot of the memorandum of agreement entered into recently by DOTC, LTFRB, and city government.

Based on the MOA, the DOTC, as an implementing agency, will provide funds for the employment assistance and skills training amounting to nearly P14 million.

  The amount will be deposited to the TESDA Trust Fund over the next 10 months, which was based on the estimated cost of P15,000 each for 933 participants. The funding for the TESDA program will come from the Special Vehicle Pollution Control Fund which is a component of the Motor Vehicle Users Charge collected from annual vehicle registration fees.

The DOTC is mandated under Executive Order No. 125 to impose appropriate measures so that technical, economic and other conditions for the continuing economic viability of the transportations and communication entities are not jeopardized and do not encourage inefficiency and distortion of traffic patronage.  (FREEMAN)