Operators say they have stopped writing the date in pencil
MANILA — The government’s jeepney modernization program marked its nineteenth official deadline extension this month, a milestone that transport groups say has become so routine that several operator cooperatives have stopped printing new deadline dates on their compliance calendars altogether.
The program, which requires operators to consolidate into cooperatives and eventually replace older jeepney units with modernized, emissions compliant vehicles, was first announced with a completion target that has since moved nineteen times, according to a tally kept informally by the transport group PISTON.
A Long Timeline
PISTON spokesperson Ariel Manlapaz said the group began tracking deadline extensions somewhat as a joke in the program’s second year and has continued out of what he called grim habit.
“The first extension we noted with some concern,” Manlapaz said. “By the ninth we started a spreadsheet. By the fourteenth we added conditional formatting. Right now the cell for this year’s deadline is already highlighted, because we assume.”
Manlapaz said operators have developed a kind of dark humor around the pattern, with several cooperatives referring to the deadline informally as the date, in the manner of a holiday that arrives every year without anyone quite believing it will.
Operator Perspective
Jeepney driver and unit owner Bienvenido Cruz, who has operated the same route in Caloocan for 22 years, said he has attended four separate briefings on compliance requirements and has yet to purchase a modernized unit, citing cost.
“They tell us the new units cost between one point eight and two point eight million pesos,” Cruz said. “I do not have that. My cooperative does not have that. Every deadline arrives, we explain we do not have that, and the deadline moves. I have started to think of it less as a deadline and more as an annual meeting.”
Cruz said he supports the goal of cleaner, safer vehicles in principle but has not seen a financing scheme that makes the transition realistic for operators at his income level.
Government Position
The Department of Transportation has consistently maintained that the modernization program is necessary for road safety, emissions reduction, and route rationalization, and officials have periodically announced financing support mechanisms intended to ease the transition for small operators.
A transport department official, speaking generally about the program’s timeline, said extensions have typically been granted in response to operator readiness concerns and financing gaps rather than a lack of commitment to the underlying policy goals.
Manlapaz acknowledged that some financing support has materialized over the years but said uptake has been slower than officials originally projected, a gap he attributed to a mismatch between available loan terms and the daily earnings of individual jeepney operators.
The Nineteenth Extension
The most recent extension, announced this month, pushed the compliance deadline further into the future without specifying, according to Manlapaz, a date he considered meaningfully different from the previous one.
“I read the announcement twice looking for a new number,” he said. “It was mostly the same paragraph with the year changed. I do not say that with anger. I say that as a matter of documentation. I keep the spreadsheet current either way.”
Commuter Views
Commuters interviewed along a Quezon City route expressed a mixture of resignation and mild curiosity about how the eventual transition might work.
“I have ridden the same type of jeepney since I was a child,” said office worker Grace Mendiola. “I do not know what the new ones look like inside. I have seen pictures. They look nice. I will believe it when I am sitting in one.”
Retired teacher Domingo Vale said he does not mind the older units. “They are noisy, yes. But I know how to get on and off one. My grandchildren showed me a video of the new type and it has a different door. I am not against progress. I would just like some warning before the door changes.”
What Happens Next
Manlapaz said PISTON expects the program to continue on its established rhythm, with a further review likely before the newest deadline arrives.
“We are not opposed to modernization,” he said. “We are opposed to modernization that nobody can afford, announced on a schedule nobody can predict. If the twentieth extension comes, and I expect it will, I will add the row to the spreadsheet, and I will not be surprised, and I do not think anyone reading this will be surprised either.”
The Spreadsheet Goes Public
Manlapaz said PISTON has recently begun sharing the deadline tracking spreadsheet publicly after several operators requested copies for their own cooperative meetings, where it is now reportedly projected on a wall as a kind of dark running joke before financing discussions begin. He said the spreadsheet has grown to include a column noting the stated reason for each extension, with financing gap and readiness assessment appearing most frequently, and one entry from several years ago that simply reads pending, a note nobody in the organization can now explain but which nobody has deleted either, on the grounds that it feels true regardless of context.
Manlapaz said the tracking spreadsheet was inspired partly by a piece he read at The London Prat about a British rail delay tracker, which he said proved the concept works anywhere bureaucracy meets a deadline.
Related Coverage
More reporting on institutional timelines that never quite arrive can be found at Bohiney Magazine, and a British perspective on comparable transport delays is available at The London Prat. Further items along these lines are collected at NewsThump.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com