Upon extensive research, Inklusibo found out that international financial corporations and multinational transport corporations have vested interests in the PUV Modernization Program.

In 2015, the World Bank Group funded the Transport and Traffic Management Plan in General Santos City which became the blueprint of the LPTRP pilot test plan in 2018. The plan was to replace all traditional jeepneys with expensive Euro-4 vehicles which cost approximately 800,000 to 4 million Pesos. Given the expensive cost of purchasing such vehicles, the government encouraged transport workers to avail bank financing limited to 5% of the whole cost. However, public funds were used to give incentives to foreign multinational transport corporations such as Toyota, Mitsubishi, Isuzu, Hyundai, Fuso, Hino, and Tatana to ease their entry into the PUV assembly market.

The Transport and Traffic Management Plan funded by the World Bank Group was based on their program of pushing low and middle-income countries in Asia to transition to electric mobility. This was their response to the rising level of carbon emissions produced by vehicles.

While the organization welcomes solutions in reducing carbon emissions, Inklusibo notes that only 2% of the total vehicular volume in the country is composed of Public Utility Vehicles. This makes us ask why PUVs are targetted by such program.

It is all due to the Philippine government’s interest in welcoming foreign vehicle manufacturing corporations and continuing the World Bank’s neoliberal agenda. As they earn more profit, the toiling masses become more embedded in poverty.

Inklusibo, just like transport workers, supports modernization if it is progressive, people-centric, and nationalistic. Railroading a modernization plan that disenfranchise the people will never be the solution and will only breed further resistance from the people.