SEN. Grace Poe, warning against a looming “commuter pandemonium,” on Wednesday took up the cudgels for public utility vehicles (PUVs) blocked from plying regular routes.
“There is every reason to listen to the plea to allow more public utility vehicles to return to their routes ahead of the opening of face-to-face classes in August,” the senator stressed.
She suggested that “it is a viable solution to avert a commuter pandemonium when majority of the 28 million students, mixed with millions more workers, go out on the streets for a ride to their destinations and back home.”
Poe pointed out that while there are buses deployed, “they run only in main thoroughfares and do not service the secondary roads where residences are usually situated.”
She recalled “we have had enough of scenes of dehumanizing conditions of commuters when they have to bear long lines, elbow their way to get inside a vehicle, stand up for hours in a bus or even hitch a ride.”
In a brief statement, Poe, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Public Services, stressed that public transport officials concerned “must spare our workers and students from this ordeal.”
“We call on the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board to hasten its decision on letting more PUVs to ply their traditional routes,” the senator said, suggesting “doing so would not only help augment transportation needed by our people, but also provide a source of income to our drivers.”