Escudero orders Senate panel: Urge Marcos to suspend PUVMP

SENATE President Francis Escudero yesterday asked the Committee on Public Services to come up with a resolution urging President Marcos Jr. to temporarily suspend the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) until the government has come up with solutions to all issues and concerns about the program.

Escudero, during the committee hearing on the PUVMP, said he has always been against the implementation of the program since it is apparent the concerns raised by various stakeholders have not been given the proper solutions before it was fully implemented last April.

“That’s why I am proposing, Mr. Chairman, and I believe that the majority of the senators will support the suspension of the modernization program, that instead of coming up with measures or proposing amendments to the program, we immediately pass a resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that we are urging, calling on the President to temporarily suspend the program until such time that all of the questions and problems have been properly addressed,” Escudero said.

Sen. Raffy Tulfo, the committee chairman, replied in the affirmative.

“Definitely, absolutely, I will file a resolution for the suspension of the PUVMP and with the support of the majority of the senators and the Senate president, then so be it,” Tulfo said.

Escudero said he is confident the President would heed the senators’ call, just like when he listened to the plea of the people to ban the operations of the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators as announced during his third State of the Nation Address last Monday.

He said the resource persons present during the hearing need not debate that the PUVMP is a failure since it was not well thought out and the government is not prepared to implement it since its proponents did not consult the various stakeholders.

“The government did not even bother to ask or at least listen to the PUV sector before it was implemented by the past administration. In other words, they forced it,” he added.

Escudero recalled that from 2019 to 2022, when he served as governor of Sorsogon, he turned down the program due to its many flaws.

He said a representative of the Department of