By Hannah Torregoza The Department of Transportation (DOTr) should turn the current COVID-19 crisis into a ‘golden opportunity’ to push for a shift to sustainable forms of mobility and transportation. Senator Pia Cayetano
(PRIB Photo by Cesar Tomambo/ 25 September 2019) Senator Pia Cayetano noted that the current state of the country’s public transport system could not possibly accommodate the huge volume of workers projected to go back to work following the shift to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) and general community quarantine (GCQ) status of several regions, including Metro Manila. Thus, she said, the government should “fast-forward ourselves” into the future with the use of sustainable modes of transportation, including walking, biking, and other non-motorized vehicles. “We want to ensure that these people will be biking within a reasonable time, not three hours of biking per day,” Cayetano said during the Senate committee of the whole hearing on the government’s COVID-19 response strategy. ‘These are shifts made by other countries in the past. It requires a little bit more planning and rethinking. But this is the perfect time to do it,” she said. During the hearing, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade assured that the DOTR is ready to promote bicycles as an alternative means of travel during the new normal. He also said the agency will submit to the Senate its detailed plan to implement this initiative. Cayetano, however, said government agencies should fast-track the release of guidelines for the operation of public transportation, including the use of alternative modes of travel, in areas under community quarantine. Apart from the DOTr, the lawmaker pressed the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to hasten the issuance of guidelines for the use of public transportation, especially in Metro Manila. She said the plan can spell out what other agencies like the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), local government units, and groups directly working with companies can do to be more mindful of employees’ welfare while commuting to work. Cayetano said employees whose workplaces are within the immediate vicinity of their communities, approximately within 10 kilometers or nearer, should be supported to be able to walk and bike comfortably to work. “We need more planning and coordination. (It is estimated that) 50-75 percent of the workforce can go back to work physically within a certain period of time. (But) there is no way that our public transportation, as it stands, can sustain them considering the (situation) we are in,” she explained. “That is why the messaging and the planning for this shift to a sustainable program for transportation must be considered carefully,” the lawmaker stressed.