
“We are actually considering alternative livelihoods for them. There’s a suggestion that they be employed as contact tracers because we do need about 120,000 of them and its only only about 30,000 employed so far,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in an interview.
There were 500,000 jeepney drivers and 200,000 small jeepney operators affected by the lockdown, Transport group Piston earlier said. No jeepneys on the roads means no income for the ordinary driver.
Roque said it is not possible to resume operations of jeepneys.
“It’s not in the immediate horizon because it’s almost a physical impossibility to have social distancing when passengers face each other in a jeepney,” he said.
“There are new modern jeepneys being deployed where the seating arrangement is similar to buses. I understand this kind of modern jeepneys might be deployed sooner than later,” he added, talking about the PUV Modernization program that is being pushed forward again.