The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has moved onto the next stage in its Public Transport Modernization Program (PTMP), the proper assignment of routes and the purchase of modern public utility vehicles (PUV).

Jonathan Gesmundo, Executive Assistant to the DOTr Secretary, said the consolidation phase of the PTMP is officially over with no more plans for an extension.

However, he said those who have submitted documents intending to consolidate but still have incomplete requirements have six more months to comply.

“We will give them six months to complete their documentary requirements, that’s so they can beat the deadline on April 30,” Gesmundo said in a televised Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon briefing over PTV on Wednesday.

The next step in the PTMP, he said, is the proper assignment of PUV routes to these transport cooperatives by their respective local government units (LGU).

“The LGU will assign cooperatives to their routes. It would depend on the LGU, not the DOTr nor the LTFRB,” he said.

He said LGUs would decide as they know whether enough PUVs are plying a certain route.

For transport cooperatives and companies, he said it is now time to process the bank loans they need to purchase modern PUVs that are required under the PTMP.

“They need to complete the documentary requirements for a bank loan to purchase a new unit. There are still a lot of components, but that’s where we’re focusing,” he said.

While the final data on consolidation is still being calculated, he said that the total percentage of consolidated PUVs has reached 78 to 79 percent, with the LTFRB confident that it will reach 80 percent.

“We didn’t expect it to reach 100 percent because there are many PUVs that did not consolidate for different reasons,” he said.

He reiterated that PUVs who failed to comply with consolidation are now considered "colorum" or unregistered.

However, he said these PUVs will not immediately be apprehended but instead, be asked to explain why they failed to consolidate.