Select employees and officials from the Department of Transportation and its attached agencies – Land Transport Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and Office of Transportation Cooperatives (OTC), together with PUV manufacturers/assemblers, Government Financing Institutions (GFIs), and Board members of Transport Cooperatives identified for the PUV Modernization Program’s pilot implementation held a special board meeting on November 6, 2017 at the OTC Conference Room.

Undersecretary Anneli R. Lontoc gave an overview of the PUV Modernization Program and its Industry Consolidation component. This was followed by brief presentations from vehicle manufacturers such as Mitsubishi-Almazora, ABMAP, and Hino Motors about the proposed modernized units. Representatives from Hyundai, Kia, and Tata Motors were also present during the meeting.

The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) presented its financing program dubbed as PASADA or the Program Assistance to Support Alternative Driving Approaches. Under this Program, the DBP will provide 1.5B php worth of finance facility for the PUVMP’s pilot implementation which OTC-accredited cooperatives may avail of and repay using a 567 scheme – 5% equity, 6% annual interest, payable within seven (7) years. While DBP will transact exclusively with Transport Service Cooperatives (TSC), Landbank of the Philippines (LBP) will offer the same payment scheme to driver-operators who are members of TSCs. DBP mentioned that only brand new vehicles are eligible for the loan and that the bank will look at the profitability of the proposed routes and the new vehicles’ technical sustainability to ensure that the bank will be repaid.