LAPU-LAPU City, Cebu Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan said he will push for the reduction of tricycle fare rates in the city, now that the government has increased passenger capacity of public utility vehicles.

The local executive said he received requests from commuters for the return to the previous fare rates.

“We will endorse that to the City Council for it to compute and reduce our fare rate,” Chan said in a mixed Cebuano and English.

The mayor has no authority to increase or decrease the fare rates of tricycles operating in the city. This duty rests on the City Council.

Provisional increase

In 2018, the City Council passed an ordinance increasing the tricycle fare to P8 from P7 because of the increase in gasoline prices.

When the Covid-19 pandemic arrived in the city in June 2020, the City Council passed an ordinance that granting a provisional fare hike to tricycles in the city, allowing drivers to charge passengers P15, P20 and P25, depending on the routes.

The ordinance mandates that only two passengers can be accommodated per tricycle, with one passenger riding in the sidecar while the other at its extension.

This was imposed at the height of the pandemic when the national government mandated the reduction of passenger capacity in all public transportation to slow down the spread of Covid-19. The national government allowed a provisional increase in fare rates to compensate for the decrease in the capacity.

Expensive fare

Chan said Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, that some tricycle drivers are charging P20 to P30 for each passenger, which he described as a great burden to commuters.

From the two-passenger limit, tricycles can now carry three passengers, the Lapu-Lapu City Public Information Office said in its press release posted on Facebook Friday, Nov. 19, 2021.

Chan said he also received requests from tricycle operators and drivers for an increase in their passenger capacity as the government has allowed the increased capacity in buses, traditional public utility jeepneys, modern jeepneys and other public utility vehicles.

Lapu-Lapu City and the entire Cebu are under Alert Level 2.