The Para Commuters’ Network late on Friday slammed the World Bank Group and its proposed “major overhaul” of the Public Transport Modernization Program (PTMP) as “anti-commuter by design.”
In a statement, the commuter group said the implementation of the controversial program would “worsen transport supply issues and increase fares.”
It also said this proposal is in contrast with the statements of World Bank senior transport specialist Bowen Wang that the overhaul of the PTMP “focused on modernizing the service in terms of commuter experience for everybody”.
“Bowen Wang and the World Bank are professional liars. They keep harping on about improving reliability and punctuality of public transport, but maliciously avoid discussing the forced scrapping of jeepneys and the leasing model that is at the heart of the World Bank jeepney phaseout. This will totally destroy our transport supply and make commuting more difficult. The leasing model will increase fares exponentially. The model is anti-commuter by design,” Para Commuters’ Network convenor Nanoy Rafael said.
Under the leasing model of the World Bank, public utility vehicle (PUV) operators will no longer be owning their PUVs, but instead will be renting from a leasing company, with the commuter network saying that there will be a “systematic scrappage of old PUVs”, or what they described as an enforced scrapping program for the traditional jeepney.
“Commuters are already suffering due to the failures of the PTMP… We have seen a reduction of transport supply by as much as 190,000 PUVs nationwide since the implementation of the jeepney phaseout, with only a meager 8,000 modern fleets serving as replacement as of August 2026. Now the World Bank wants to systematically scrap our remaining jeepneys,” Rafael said.
“The World Bank proposal document itself belie Bowen Wang's claim that they are prioritizing commuters… The gross-cost service contracting model, according to the World Bank document itself, is essential as an ‘assurance that the operators could pay back the leasing fees,’” he added.
