This study investigates to what extent a sustained movement led by the jeepney operators and drivers (JODs) under the informal transport workers’ federation PISTON influenced policy change in the Philippine government’s Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) between 2017 and 2024. Framed by Giugni’s jointeffect model, it examines how policy changes were influenced by the dynamic interaction of three key factors: movement mobilization, public opinion, and the engagement of state actors. Drawing on content analysis of protest event data, and legislative statements, the study maps the corresponding executive issuances as well as the interplay between the three factors across three critical periods: (1) the pre-pandemic years (2017–2019), marked by limited mobilization and minimal support from the public and legislators; (2) the pandemic period (2020–2022), where sympathy from both the public and the legislators for JODs grew even as physical mobilizations waned; and (3) the post-pandemic period (2023–2024), which saw heightened mobilization, as well as heightened support from the public and legislators. Although the movement is yet to achieve its central demand to suspend or overhaul the PUVMP, it resulted in a series of modest policy adjustments: deadline extensions, relaxed requirements, increased subsidies, and the symbolic inclusion of “just transition” language into the program. These incremental gains - though far from transformative - opened critical space for the movement to catalyze support and expand alliances beyond; reframe public discourse on public transport modernization; and sustain, and in some ways, strengthen momentum. In doing so, the movement recentered the voices of informal transport workers in policy debates, alongside commuters, and challenged the top-down and technocratic ‘modernization’ program. By tracing how far this movement has come, the study underscores the capacity of informal transport workers to act as political agents capable of affecting policy change, despite operating from the margins. It contributes to the literature on social movements and public policy by demonstrating how sustained resistance, even under structural disadvantage, can compel state response and create pathways for more inclusive policy.