Transport group Piston announced on Tuesday that it will hold a strike on December 14 and 15.

The group is protesting against the consolidation requirement of the government’s Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) which deadline is on December 31.

In a statement, Piston said the mandatory consolidation of PUV franchises would lead to 80 percent of operators and drivers losing their jobs by the end of the year.

It also maintained that the program would lead to a monopoly of public transport since only large corporations or rich cooperatives “can comply with the costly modernization standards”.

Piston National President Mody Floranda urged Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Chairperson Teofilo Guadiz III to scrap not just the consolidation deadline but the entire modernization program.

“What is stopping Guadiz? Just one memorandum circular from them would cancel the deadline. If they want to, we can just draft it for them so that they would only have to sign it,” Floranda said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS