EDITORIAL — Along the road of by-and-by

Drivers of colorum Passenger Utility Vehicle (PUVs) can heave a sigh of relief for now; the deadline for the consolidation of PUV franchises under the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program has been extended to April 30 this year.

The previous “deadlines” were December 31 last year, then January 31 this year.

“This extension is to give an opportunity to those who expressed intention to consolidate but did not make the previous cut-off,” Presidential Communications Office Secretary Cheloy Garafil said.

There is no doubt that this is a good development for PUV drivers and operators, but is it good for other parties like the riding public or even the government?

In the long run these numerous extensions do nothing but give the impression that the government isn’t really serious in the implementation of some of its projects.

Of course, there is always the other hand, and this extension does give those holdout drivers and operators who have been resisting this policy for a long time enough time to reconsider and follow what is being required.

But does it have to be three months? Isn’t that too long an extension? Can’t this be done in two months or even one?

We know how the saying goes: Give a man an inch and he will take the whole road. There’s another relevant one: Along the road of by-and-by, one comes to the house of never.

That means the longer something is put off, the less likely it will become a reality. The more extensions are granted to colorum PUV drivers the more they will ask for another extension, and then another extension, and then another, ad infinitum.

Like the many old PUVs that are no longer roadworthy, the whole modernization program itself might soon be in danger of getting scrapped.