Wednesday, March 05, 2008 Council mulls banning jeepneys from Baguio's CBD
PUBLIC utility vehicles (PUVs) with illegally issued franchises will be barred from entering Baguio City and their staging areas issued by barangay councils will be withdrawn.
The City Council made this decision after the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) en banc "lifted" the moratorium on the acceptance of certificates of public convenience (CPC) and issued 30 new CPCs covering the Gold Creek and Mangga lines both in Tuding, Itogon, Benguet.
The new CPCs were issued based on the claim that these are new developmental routes.
In a privilege speech, Councilor Richard Cariño criticized the LTFRB for its arbitrary and unilateral lifting of the moratorium without the consulting the Baguio City Council. He claimed this is an assault to their power and prerogative as guardians of local autonomy.
The City Government adopts the policy that in the issuance of new CPCs, applicants must first seek the council's endorsement. A resolution exempting an applicant from the coverage of the moratorium is what is submitted to the LTFRB for the conduct of a route measure capacity (RMC) and subsequent issuance of a CPC if established that there is a need to add units or open a new route.
Cariño said this policy has been abused not just by the LFTRB but also by the council.
"These resolutions could have contained the proliferation of PUVs in the city were it not repeatedly abused by corrupt and unthinking LTFRB personnel, aided with tolerance from us in the council," Cariño added referring to at least 20 resolutions passed by the council, which all aimed at regulating the increasing number of PUVs here.
The councilor also declared, "what the LTFRB has done is not only arbitrary, it is also crookedly tainted. In construing the moratorium circulars wrongly to justify the entry of new applicants despite the moratorium, smacks off questionable and self-serving motives manifesting suspicion and material gain."
In the case of the Mangga and Gold Creek lines, Cariño pointed out no new CPCs should have been issued. Aside from the absence of a valid RMC, there is now new route in these areas and passengers are currently serviced by existing jeepney lines.
An RMC is a survey done to determine the actual number of passengers at a given time. This is used as basis for the granting of new or additional CPCs.
In the case of the Pula-Green Valley line, the loop service applied for is without a passable road, Cariño said.
"Banking on the presumption of regularity of the acts of the government agency, the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) acquired the temerity to lie, deceive and perjure their RMCs which strangely, are not questioned by the LTFRB and the council," he lamented, adding that laxity of concerned officials resulted in, among others, multiple sale of hundreds of spurious taxi franchises during Director Tapia's time, the illegal legalization of hundreds of taxi franchises during the term of LTFRB Regional Director Veronica Lasaten, the anomalous grants to hundreds of vehicles-for-hire from different regions by then director Bruno Patricio and the reincarnation of dead CPCs by then director Alfredo Mondiguing.
The council adopted nine actions in response to Cariño's speech.
It was agreed for DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza to issue a new memorandum circular imposing a moratorium on the issuance of new CPCs touching or entering Baguio, revoke all illegally issued CPCs and to ask the same agency to stop the issuance CPCs on new developmental routes without first consulting the council.
The council also asked the DOTC to nullify the CPCs of Pula Green Valley, Mangga and Gold Creek.
Further, the staging areas of those with illegal CPCs will be removed and allegation on illegal issuance will be referred to the Office of the Ombudsman for investigation on possible violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
The proposal to institutionalize the removal of staging areas if CPCs are illegal was referred to the City Council committee on laws.
In the meantime, Councilor Nicasio Palaganas reiterated that the ordinance mandating the use of color-coded and pre-numbered stickers to PUVs be implemented soon, to prevent the increasing number of PUVs.
Cariño also proposed to declare the LTFRB persona non grata but the council decided not to act on matter yet, while awaiting the DOTC's response.
Councilor Perlita Chan-Rondez said the council might invite a negative response from both the LTFRB and the DOTC if they declare the former unwanted in Baguio.
