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Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Resistance mounts v. trike number-coding
By Jimmy P. Abayon
OPPOSITION to a proposal to enforce a color-and number coding scheme among the city's estimated 2,500 motorcabs-for-hire is mounting.
The measure, filed before the City Council by Councilor Samuel Dicen, will ban tricycles sporting a certain color and number for one day per week from city streets.
Under the proposal, 500 tricycles with plate numbers ending in 01 will be banned Mondays, 02 and 03 Tuesdays, 04 and 05 Wednesdays, 06 and 07 Thursdays, and 08 and 09 Fridays.
Fresh protests surfaced Thursday during the session of the City Council when City Councilor Myrish Cadapan-Antonio presented a letter from a distinguished mathematician outlining the author's argument against Dicen's proposed color-coding scheme.
The author, mathematics professor Millard Mamhot of Central Visayas Polytechnic College (CVPC), in his letter to Councilor Cadapan, said the scheme "may not be well-founded."
Dr. Mamhot argued that lessening the number of tricycles on the city's streets would not earn more for them nor compensate for their ban-days because the driver's income depends on the number of passengers he can convey, the passengers' fare, and the time it takes to carry the passengers.
He explained that the driver's maximum monthly income would depend on the number of passengers he can convey, expenses like the costs of gasoline and spare parts, rental for the vehicle, and rest moments.
Mamhot said banning tricycles from plying the streets would not reduce air pollution.
"I am not sure banning tricycles from plying the streets means a total ban, that is, they can not ply even for other reasons like family use. If they can still move around the city... then pollution will not be significantly reduced while their income will be drastically reduced," the math professor said.
He added that fewer tricycles would not eliminate the drivers' practice of refusing to convey one passenger in favor of more because they want to earn more.
"If there are more people to choose from, the more discriminatory they may become," Mamhot said.
The City Council will resume discussion on the Dicen scheme next week; it is expected to invite other sectors for their inputs.
Tricycle drivers invited to air their side of the scheme the previous week unanimously opposed the scheme.
Of the estimated 2,500 tricycles in Dumaguete City, more than 900 tricycles are owned by operator-drivers, the rest are rented from operators.
(September 14, 2003 issue)
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