00:00 Holiday exodus and heavy traffic this Christmas,
00:03 we will discuss with the Department of Transportation Undersecretary for Planning,
00:07 Timothy John Bataan.
00:09 Usec, good afternoon and welcome to Bagong Pilipinas.
00:13 Yes, good afternoon to all our listeners and viewers in Bagong Pilipinas.
00:19 Usec, how was your assessment
00:23 of the volume of vehicles and passengers in public utility vehicles this holiday season?
00:30 How was your assessment?
00:33 Yes, Usec.
00:35 As we expected and as the government prepared,
00:39 we are already seeing the increase of vehicles on our roads.
00:46 And not only that, but also on our roadsides, on our roadsides,
00:51 we are seeing more and more passengers.
00:55 We expect this holiday season and new year to continue.
01:02 These are the things that our government prepared under the leadership of Secretary Jaime Bautista
01:09 to ensure that despite this increase,
01:15 our passengers are still safe and convenient this Christmas season.
01:23 Sir, we have a question from our media partner, J.M. Pineda of IBC 13.
01:30 His question is if the DOTR is doing anything to reduce the traffic on major roads.
01:40 Here on our major roads, one of the things that the government is doing,
01:45 together with our attached agency, the Land Transportation Office or LTO,
01:51 is to ensure that we have enough enforcers on the road
01:57 to help the vehicles that are damaged and have problems on our roads.
02:04 For example, this will help if the vehicles that are damaged on our roads are not immediately addressed,
02:16 this will contribute to traffic and congestion.
02:22 So this is one of the things that we are looking at.
02:24 When it comes to mass transport and public utility vehicles,
02:30 our real estate sector is ensuring that the number of trains is sufficient
02:36 and it is running according to the number of passengers.
02:42 When it comes to other public utility vehicles, such as jeeps and buses,
02:49 we are also ensuring that the supply is sufficient to meet the demand of people on our roads.
02:57 Usec, a lot of people are asking,
03:00 will there be a free ride program in EDSA Carousel to help our commuters?
03:06 We are not seeing a free ride program because first of all,
03:14 we don't have the budget to implement it.
03:18 We are seeing that the service in EDSA Carousel is sufficient and good enough
03:25 and this is what our commuters have been looking for in the past few months.
03:34 All right.
03:35 But in the upcoming rally, Buar Strike, tomorrow, Thursday and Friday,
03:41 do you have contingency measures for that and free rides or emergency vehicles
03:49 to be stranded in the coming two days?
03:53 Yes. For the upcoming strike, we have prepared some things to be put in place.
04:08 If we can remember, this is not the first strike that we will face,
04:15 which is connected to our issue on the PUV modernization.
04:19 If we can remember, last November and earlier this year,
04:24 we have already faced and experienced this transport strike.
04:31 From our experience in the earlier strikes, we have prepared free rides,
04:40 we have prepared measures to ensure that there are still transport options for our commuters that are affected.
04:52 One important clarification is based on what we saw last November and earlier this year,
05:02 we did not expect that this transport strike would have that many people.
05:09 We have many colleagues in the public transport sector,
05:15 including Magnificent 7 and their members,
05:19 and other transport groups, transport cooperatives and jeepney operators
05:26 that expressed their support for our PUV modernization project.
05:31 Because our President, President Bongbong Marcos, said that our PUV modernization project is ongoing
05:40 and it is understood and supported by many of our transport groups,
05:47 by many of our jeepney and PUV operators.
05:51 That's why we expect that just like last November and earlier this year,
06:01 we will not have that many people affected by the transport strike that will happen in the next two days.
06:06 I hope so because it's still a salary and we don't want our countrymen to be stranded, especially during this Christmas rush.
06:14 We will talk to those who are affected later in our program.
06:18 We will talk to those who are affected later in our program.
06:23 We will talk to those who are affected later in our program.
06:28 We will talk to those who are affected later in our program.
06:33 We will talk to those who are affected later in our program.
06:38 We will talk to those who are affected later in our program.
06:43 We will talk to those who are affected later in our program.
06:48 We will talk to those who are affected later in our program.
06:53 We will talk to those who are affected later in our program.
06:58 We will talk to those who are affected later in our program.
07:03 We will talk to those who are affected later in our program.
07:06 That is a PPP, public private partnership, that is managed by our concessionaire.
07:14 We have key performance indicators that our operator needs to ensure that it will be effective.
07:27 We are continuously monitoring and we are continuously working with our concessionaire, MWM Terminals,
07:36 to ensure that despite the increase in the number of passengers,
07:41 which is starting to increase and we are expecting more,
07:46 we will be able to maintain our facilities, including the PI3X.
07:56 Yusek, just a follow-up, will the DOTR give special permits
08:02 to augment the number of passengers going to the provinces?
08:06 The special permits that are given by our LTFRB are case-to-case,
08:15 determined by our LTFRB if there is a need.
08:19 And according to the needs of a route, this can be considered.
08:27 But it is case-to-case and it is according to the regulations laid by our LTFRB.
08:37 Sir, you mentioned earlier about our trains.
08:42 My question is, have you traveled to the lines of Metro Manila trains?
08:47 And how is your preparation and coordination with PNR, LRT and MRT for the upcoming holiday exodus?
08:57 Our rail sector is continuously monitoring our operating lines, LRT1, LRT2, MRT3 and PNR,
09:10 to ensure that the number of our running trains is sufficient and the condition of our lines of trains is sufficient.
09:21 At the moment, we are not seeing any problems in our rail sector.
09:29 We are expecting that our sector will be able to meet the needs of the people during this Christmas season.
09:39 Usec, what are the updates on the ground?
09:43 According to the Bureau of Immigration, 1.5 million arrivals are expected this holiday season.
09:49 How is your coordination with the ground, especially with the terminals of IA?
09:54 That's right. In fact, according to the MIA, the head of Manila International Airport,
10:05 we are expecting that we will use 138,000 people in our IA, International Airport.
10:17 As Secretary Bautista said recently, he came here and inspected to ensure that all IA terminals are ready for the arrival of passengers.
10:32 At the moment, it's good to see that we had a test run of the IA.
10:40 We saw that the number of people in the IA can be handled by our IA.
10:49 We also saw that it can be fixed.
10:54 One of the results of that is the on-time performance of the IA in the past few months.
11:05 For example, we reached 84 percent on-time performance.
11:10 That means 84 percent of all scheduled flights are on-time in the IA.
11:16 We are still working on that to improve and improve.
11:22 Okay. As a last question, Usec, do you have a message and a reminder to our passengers and public utility service operators this holiday season?
11:35 Maybe just a reminder.
11:40 As Secretary Jaime Bautista said, we are expecting more passengers, more people using our terminals, our airports and our public utility vehicles.
11:59 Maybe just a reminder to our passengers to understand our situation this Christmas season because this is normal.
12:10 It happens every year that our passengers are increasing, every year that our chief, bus, train, airport and public utility vehicles are using more.
12:20 All preparations are being carried out by your department and your government under the leadership of our Chief, Secretary Jaime Bautista,
12:34 who gave us the direction to ensure a convenient, accessible, safe and affordable transportation system for our passengers.
12:46 Thank you very much, Oras Department of Transportation Undersecretary Timothy John Batan.
12:52 Thank you. Good afternoon to our listeners and viewers.
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