According to Mody Floranda, President of transport group PISTON, five months
after the coronavirus-induced quarantines prompted the suspension of mass transportation, jeepney drivers who have been barred from plying their usual routes and earning a living still have not received any aid from the government.

Mody Floranda, president of transport group Piston, said that the group’s members have been engaging in dialogue with the Department of Social Welfare and Development, which handles the government’s social amelioration program for sectors affected by the pandemic.

In mid-July, the government allowed a total of 6,002 jeepneys back on the road to ply 49 routes as part of a “partial resumption” amid the shortage of mass transportation during the general community quarantine—which Piston at the time said was only a small fraction of the 74,000 public utility jeepneys idled following the suspension of mass transportation.