Tuesday, March 25, 2008 PUVs given ultimatum on transport permit
BACOLOD Traffic Chief Senior Inspector Levy Pangue has given all public utility vehicles (PUVs) operating in the city until first week of April to secure their business permits or they would be apprehended and their vehicles impounded.
Pangue made this reiteration in a mass consultation he called last week with different public transport groups in the city in view of reports that some transport operators, especially those outbound, are mulling to defy the order.
Pangue told Sun.Star Bacolod it is the city's policy that all public transport vehicles entering or operating in Bacolod must secure a business permit from the City Licensing and Permit Division.
He said if other businesses in the city are securing their permits, so must the transport groups picking up passengers from the city, parking in the city terminal, or putting up their waiting stations here.
"They are supposed to secure their permits every January with extension till February but we have given them consideration due to economic difficulties of some transport operators. If they cannot still secure their permit by end of this month, we will ban them from making trips anywhere in the city," said Pangue.
The city had long been implementing the policy but has been lenient about it since a few years back due to repeated appeals of outbound transport groups for exemption, saying they were already paying business permits in the city place of origin like OMC and SDL with base in La Carlota City, Sonjoda group in Kabankalan City, and those in the north with base in Cadiz and Escalante cities.
However, Bacolod City has renewed its stricter implementation of 'no business permit, no entry' starting 2007 after it banned southbound transport group OMC and few other mini-buses from entering the city when they were found operating here without business permits.
Pangue said they are now initiating meetings and dialogues with different transport groups in Bacolod and outbound vehicles so they can be oriented on the importance and safeguards of having business permits.
He also said that his office is ready to assist transport groups in securing their permits, including other technical assistance.
