IN A bid to further strengthen measures aimed at regulating the passage of inter-municipality Public Utility Jeepneys (PUJs’) along the main thoroughfares of the City of Baguio City Councilor Benny Bomogao recently filed a proposed legislative measure that would prohibit said jeepneys from picking up passengers along existing Baguio PUJ routes and imposing penalties for its violation.
In the said proposed ordinance Councilor Bomogao cited City Resolution Numbered 115, series of 2014 adopted in support of Resolution Number 01, series of 2014 passed by the Traffic and Transportation Management Committee (TTMC) entitled “Prescribing the guidelines on the operation of Public Utility Jeepneys (PUJs’) originating from outside the City of Baguio/Inter-Municipality PUJs’ with destination towards Baguio”, and pointing out that despite the existence of such a city resolution approved by the City Council in support of the resolution of the TTMC, regulating outside PUJs from picking up passengers along routes assigned to Baguio PUJs’, said jeepneys continue to ignore such regulation.
The proposed measure also noted that the constitutionality of the abovementioned City Resolution Numbered 115, series of 2014 was challenged in court and that the Honorable Regional Trial Court , Branch 6, Baguio City decided in favour of the validity of the said resolution.
It was added however, that the same Honorable court also noted in its ruling that, “When the public defendants adopted Resolution No. 115, it was for a noble purpose of maintaining peace and order among PUJ franchise holders, the resolution by its temporary nature will be revised, amended or abandoned. The court will even accede that indeed during rush hours, commuters with the bulk comprising of students and employees lined up in long queues with no jeepneys in sight. In such extraordinary situation when there are no available jeepneys with intra-city routes available, it may be highly impractical to have an absolute prohibition on all jeepneys with inter-city routes not pick up passengers. Perhaps a modification of the resolution to accommodate instances as cited would be helpful.”
In this regard Bomogao then explained, following the comments contained in the ruling of the court, that Resolution Numbered 115, series of 2014 should be replaced with a more concrete measure such as the legislative measure he has proposed.
In the proposal to prohibit inter-municipality jeepneys from picking up passengers along existing Baguio PUJs’ routes a violation of its provisions would entail the penalty of a fine for the first offense in the amount of P 1,000.00, for the second offense the penalty in the amount of P2,000 and for the third offense the penalty of a fine of P3,000 The propose ordinance likewise dictates and enforces a no loading policy on all inter-municipality jeepneys as defined by the measure and shall not be allowed to load passengers within the City and along routes already covered by Public Utility Vehicles granted franchise by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to operate within the City of Baguio.