MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Opposition spokesman on transport Mikael Phillips has challenged Daryl Vaz, the portfolio minister, to face him in a debate over policies and plans for the sector.

Phillips reiterated his claim on the weekend that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government has failed to manage the country’s transport industry.

“I see a little man come a Parliament Tuesday, all him waan do a cuss, but I cannot debate with a man that has a limited vocabulary that [the] only thing him know is badmind. If him want to debate us on transportation let us have a meaningful debate,” Phillips told a People’s National Party (PNP) joint conference in Hatfield, Manchester, on Saturday.

“The prime minister go through four minister of transport and I will say it again, all four don’t even make one, because when the PNP left office in 2016 we left a transportation system that was working for the people and the JLP Government come and mash it up and all of a sudden now the minister is going on like he is the saviour. He is part of the reason why the transport sector mash up, because he is a part of a Cabinet of a Government of the Jamaica Labour Party,” added Phillips.

He continued to blast the Government for its management of the State-owned Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC)

“Take responsibility, Daryl Vaz, because it is your Government that mash up the JUTC; it is your Government that make rural transport the way that it is; it is your Government that make schoolchildren cannot get to school, because you couldn’t think of a transportation system that works,” Phillips said.

He said the Government’s rural school transport plan is not sustainable.

“We made a proposal when I made my presentation in Parliament three weeks ago; he [Vaz] was not there, but because our plans sound so better than his he wanted a second bite of the cherry and all he did was cuss…” said Phillips.

“We said that we are going to move 20,000 students on a daily basis, not monthly. Him come and say ‘it can’t work’. Then, Daryl Vaz, I am challenging you to let us debate what will work from what will not work. There is, at no time, that we say we don’t agree with a rural bus system for our children,” he added.

He said a future PNP Government will remedy issues in the transportation sector to benefit especially schoolchildren.

“I spoke about it four years ago in my sectoral presentation, so it was a plan that we had a long time ago, because we chose Jamaica a long time while some a unno choosing Jamaica now, but to transport our children should not be politicised,” he said.

“It is supposed to be us coming together to make a better system to be able to move our schoolchildren. That is why when Daryl Vaz invited me to be a part of the committee I said yes, but he had different ideas. What he wanted is to be able to blame us for his own inability to think about what is best for Jamaica. I cannot be a part of that,” added Phillips.