By Atty. Roland Collado
Cagayan de Oro —The recent changing of the guard in the Department of Transportation (DOTr) offers a ray of hope for the ailing transport industry .
Vince Dizon, the newly installed DOTr chief has vowed to improve the country’s transport systems and fast-track ongoing projects and those projects that are still in the pipeline.
His goal: speed up and fix the transport system to make it workable for the operators and safer for the commuting public.
The new secretary even had this challenge after taking his oath of office in Malacanang:
let us work to build better transport services and we have to build more to meet up for a globally standard transport infrastructure.
To my mind this is well said for a brand new department chief to assume the grandest role in the department amid the challenges of the long delayed implementation of the country’s transport modernization program.
I am with the new DOTR secretary pronouncements of fast-tracking the country’s transport modernization program.
Yet the challenge remains insurmountable which I believe needs surgical operation to make the transport program work on stream without further delay.
Again, one area that our policy makers need to face-off upfront is the lack of political will to implement the program.
A concrete, sustainable, forward-looking transport guidepost is badly needed half-way through the six year term of PBBM.
Another area of concern why our
transportation industry is traveling on slow motion in its journey to modernization is the constant changing of the rules in the middle of the game so to speak.
This calls for an immediate pivotal moment, mainly focused on one way clear-cut policy direction, nothwithstanding political pressures being pushed along the way.
This allows this modest representation to state this again why there is an urgent need to shift the traditional transport system to green energy- inspired program to fit in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations on changing the transport landscape into totally clean- powered energy.
While the introduction of e-vehicles is still emerging, we are always confronted by oil price hikes like no other.
And there is no need to debate on this. The traditional source of fuel for the transport industry stays as long as we do not take high regard into changing our
mindsets and completely embracing the idea of green sources of energy, in this case the shift to e-transport vehicles.
Lately, to respond to this call on turning Cagayan de Oro’s streets into becoming compliant in clean environment, the Mindanao Daily Transport Cooperative (MINDEX) in partnership with E-Future Motors Philippines Inc, makers of electric vehicles had set a milestone by going green via the delivery of initial 50 units of modernized e-jeepneys to ply in at least 11 routes in the suburbs of the city.
Somehow and somewhere along the way, MINDEX is setting a record to pioneer the use of e-vehicles, a ray of hope wishfully thought and answered for the improvement of the transport modality in Cagayan de Oro.
