MANILA (UPDATE) — The Department of Transportation (DOTr) will again start accepting applications for consolidation for public utility vehicle operators that have yet to join the government’s modernization program.

The previous deadline lapsed back in November 2024, leaving many individual jeepney operators unable to ply their routes.

Under the newly released Department Order 2025-009, individual jeepney operators may again join transport cooperatives or corporations in routes where the consolidation rate is already 60 percent and above.

As for routes with a less than 60 percent consolidation rate, they have the option form their own cooperatives or corporations.

The new regulation also comes with exceptions.

It said unconsolidated jeepneys will also be allowed to renew their one-year provisional authority (PA) so that they may continue to operate, even without applying for consolidation yet, in select routes:

- routes without any consolidated transport service entity

- new/developmental routes with no selected transport service entity

- routes with low number of authorized PUV units

This is also provided that individual jeepney operators band together and implement a common fleet operations management through the use of an agreed service plan, and the use of a common garage and terminal, if available.

“The moment you enter into the program you will be given a PA. Pag sinabi naming enter into the program, dapat may specific route ka. Saan ka ba babiyahe?" asked Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Chairperson Teofilo Guadiz.

"Number 2, tanggap ka ba ng kooperatiba pag may existing cooperatives? Pag wala, may bago kang ruta, pwede mo bang ma-establish? Hindi ba mag-ooverlap sa mga existing routes?” he asked.

Guadiz said the LTFRB will start accepting new consolidation applications by May 14, and that this would go on indefinitely for now.

“We are not restricting ourselves with a self-imposed deadline to give them ample time. But definitely may cutoff time po ito later on. Tatantsahin muna namin ilan na ba ang nagconsolidate. Pag substantial na then we will eventually put a closure to the first phase,” he added.

This development comes more than a month after then newly-installed DOTr Secretary Vince Dizon ordered a complete review of the Public Transport Modernization Program (PTMP).

He earlier said that those who failed to meet the previous consolidation deadlines should still be given a chance to legally get back on the road to earn a living.

JUST ANOTHER CONSOLIDATION EXTENSION

But transport groups opposed to franchise consolidation expressed dismay over the outcome of the review and their dialogues with Dizon.

PISTON said Dizon just got their hopes up but ultimately stuck to the “same failed framework of forced consolidation that have decimated drivers’ incomes, displaced operators without access to capital, and transferred control of routes to large, politically connected cooperatives and corporations,” it said in a statement.

“Kino-condemn namin yung inilabas na DO ng DOTr. Malayo ito sa ating konsultasyon sa kanya (Dizon). Sabi niya mula April ng 2024 ay papayagan niya na makapag-renew o makapagrehistro yung non-consolidated,” said PISTON National President Mody Floranda.

Floranda also said that the one-year PA renewal still poses great uncertainty for transport workers.

“After 1 year anong mangyayari sa’yo? Ano na magiging kinabukasan uli ng mga operator? Mga driver? Osang taon kang nangangamba sa iyong kabuhayan. Laya ginigiit talaga natin na hindi kailangan ng PA, ang kailangan natin ay franchise,” he asserted.

MANIBELA Chairman Mar Valbuena also condemned the new order, saying it reads exactly like the memorandum circulars that the LTFRB and the previous DOTr leadership have been issuing these past few years.

“Panggigipit pa rin kasi kailangan mo pa rin sumunod sa consolidation. Ito nga po yung ino-oppose namin kaya tiniis namin yung wala kaming rehistro, provisional authority. Ngayon ang gagawin mo pipilitin mo nanaman kaming pumasok doon sa sistema na palugi?” he added.

Both Floranda and Valbuena said their groups are now planning to stage a protest outside the DOTr these next few days.

ABS-CBN News has reached out to Dizon for comment but has yet to receive a response as of writing.