{"id":3273,"date":"2026-04-27T11:06:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T03:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncts.upd.edu.ph\/tssp\/?p=3273"},"modified":"2026-04-27T11:06:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T03:06:55","slug":"public-transportation-modernization-program-ptmp-forum-2-the-continuing-challenge-of-financing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncts.upd.edu.ph\/tssp\/archives\/3273","title":{"rendered":"Public Transportation Modernization Program (PTMP) Forum 2: The Continuing Challenge of Financing"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"3273\" class=\"elementor elementor-3273\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-d98e804 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"d98e804\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-c1f1d78\" data-id=\"c1f1d78\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-73a1c5e elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"73a1c5e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.21.0 - 08-05-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p><b>PTMP Forum 2: The Continuing Challenge of Financing<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The second forum on the Public Transport Modernization Program (PTMP) focused on&nbsp; addressing the persistent financing challenges faced by transport service entities (TSEs),&nbsp; particularly cooperatives and corporations. The forum was organized by the UP National&nbsp; Center for Transportation Studies, in cooperation with the Transportation Science Society of&nbsp; the Philippines (TSSP) and SafeTravelPH Mobility Innovations Organization Inc.&nbsp; (SafeTravelPH).&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Three key presentations provided updates and perspectives:&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Mr. Zion Yuson <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the <\/span><b>Department of Transportation (DOTr) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">shared updates on the&nbsp; PTMP financing component, focusing on the 5-6-7 loan scheme and the 10 percent&nbsp; equity subsidy. He noted that many cooperatives contribute no equity, resulting in&nbsp; weak ownership and a high loan default rate of 23.86 percent. Key issues include route&nbsp; competition, vehicle breakdowns, and lack of after-sales support. In response, the&nbsp; DOTr is enforcing stricter regulations, enhancing training with the CDA and OTC, and&nbsp; requiring long-term support from accredited vehicle suppliers. Future strategies&nbsp; include revising subsidy structures, exploring e-PUV financing and leasing models,&nbsp; and accrediting more reliable and affordable vehicle brands, with an emphasis on&nbsp; evaluating TSE and route viability before requiring modernization.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>AVP Raquel Anzures <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the <\/span><b>Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">presented&nbsp; the bank\u2019s support for PTMP through the PASADA Program, which finances unit&nbsp; acquisition and support facilities for TSEs. Since 2017, the fund has expanded from&nbsp; PHP 1.5 billion to PHP 10 billion, with PHP 8.6 billion in approved loans and 3,392&nbsp; units financed. DBP initiated efforts to raise the equity subsidy from PHP 180,000 to&nbsp; PHP 280,000, and now proposes increasing it to PHP 360,000. Key challenges&nbsp; identified include route competition, weak financial management among cooperatives,&nbsp; frequent leadership turnover, high maintenance costs, and limited regulatory&nbsp; enforcement. DBP emphasized the need for stronger route viability assessments and&nbsp; regulatory support to improve loan repayment and sustain financing.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Ms. Camille Fajardo <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of <\/span><b>SafeTravelPH <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">presented a network-based assessment of&nbsp; public transport in Puerto Princesa City, revealing financial struggles among&nbsp; cooperatives due to oversupply, low demand, and high service costs despite&nbsp; subsidies. Using tools such as the SafeTravelPH app, GIS, OpenPaths, and a PTMP&nbsp; calculator, her team modeled route viability and fleet requirements based on real-world&nbsp; demand data. She emphasized the limitations of current LPTRP approaches and&nbsp; called for data-driven, network-level planning with flexible fleet mixes, phased&nbsp; modernization, and operational support. She also stressed the need for transition&nbsp; financing and the importance of validated, on-the-ground data in transport planning.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>panel discussion <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reiterated that viable PTMP financing must go beyond individual&nbsp; routes to consider service areas, actual demand, and operator capacity. The DOTr&nbsp; highlighted the need to complete LPTRPs before requiring fleet modernization and to focus&nbsp; on building TSE capacity for sustainable operations. DBP and NFTC emphasized early return&nbsp; on investment, stronger government support, and cooperative-led diversification to manage&nbsp; financial risks. SafeTravelPH advocated performance-based, data-driven service contracting,&nbsp;<\/span>while TSSP proposed cross-subsidization and centralized management to improve&nbsp; operational efficiency. The panel concluded with calls to integrate financial analysis into route&nbsp; planning, support continuous knowledge-sharing among cooperatives, and tailor&nbsp; modernization efforts to local conditions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In her closing remarks, TSSP President Dr. Ma. Sheilah Napalang reminded participants that&nbsp; PTMP is about <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">people<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, not just <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">profit. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She emphasized the urgency of addressing safety,&nbsp; inclusivity, and service reliability in light of increasing road crashes. She urged stronger&nbsp; collaboration with LGUs on LPTRPs, stating that limited local capacity must not hinder&nbsp; progress. She called for critical thinking beyond raw data, advocated targeted training for&nbsp; cooperatives on financial and asset management, and noted that loan defaults often result&nbsp; from both low revenues and mismatched financing terms. She reaffirmed the role of service&nbsp; contracting as a mechanism to guarantee performance-based service. In conclusion, she&nbsp; identified four priorities: <\/span><b>fleet modernization, route rationalization, completion of&nbsp; LPTRPs, and industry consolidation.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>&nbsp;<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"text-align: start;\">The full transcript of the&nbsp;<\/span><b style=\"text-align: start;\">Public Transportation Modernization Program (PTMP) Forum 2:&nbsp;<\/b><span style=\"text-align: start;\"><b>The Continuing Challenge of Financing<\/b>&nbsp;is available below.<\/span><\/i><b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-align: start;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: start;\"><b>DOWNLOAD:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: start;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ncts.upd.edu.ph\/tssp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PTMP-Forum-2-Transcript.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Public Transportation Modernization Program (PTMP) Forum 2: The Continuing Challenge of Financing(pdf)<\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: start;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ncts.upd.edu.ph\/tssp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Executive-Summary-of-PTMP-Forum-1-2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">PTMP Forum 1 &amp; 2 Executive Summary(pdf)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PTMP Forum 2: The Continuing Challenge of Financing The second forum on the Public Transport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncts.upd.edu.ph\/tssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncts.upd.edu.ph\/tssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncts.upd.edu.ph\/tssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncts.upd.edu.ph\/tssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncts.upd.edu.ph\/tssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3273"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ncts.upd.edu.ph\/tssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3282,"href":"https:\/\/ncts.upd.edu.ph\/tssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3273\/revisions\/3282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncts.upd.edu.ph\/tssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncts.upd.edu.ph\/tssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncts.upd.edu.ph\/tssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}