WITH the Supreme Court issuing a temporary restraining order against the Mandaluyong court ruling that barred authorities from intervening in the operation of Angkas, Land Transportation Office (LTO) 7 Director Victor Emmanuel Caindec seems bent on going after motorcycle-for-hire drivers in the region, even suggesting joint operations against them together with other agencies like the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and the Highway Patrol Group.
Caindec’s eagerness to do this is not surprising, considering how Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has been portraying himself as the defender of Angkas and habal-habal drivers in general. Caindec and Osmeña engaged in a verbal exchange recently on the traffic mess created by the construction of an underpass in Mambaling.
This development should also put Osmeña on the spot. The Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) has not been going after motorcycle-for-hire drivers expanding their operation to the city proper instead of merely serving difficult-to- reach routes in the city’s mountain barangays. Habal-habal operations, even without Angkas, are visible almost everywhere in the city’s urban center.
This, even if the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the LTFRB have already made their position clear that habal-habal, and therefore Angkas operation, is illegal. “Our position is that motorcycles registered in the service are not authorized to conduct business and offer public transport under Republic Act 4136. For them to be allowed, the law has to be amended by Congress,” they said in a joint statement submitted to the Supreme Court.
Before this, and obviously with an eye to the 2019 midterm elections, the City has been organizing habal-habal drivers that, according to CCTO operations chief Francisco Ouano, number around 6,000 in the city, including those in the mountain barangays. The CCTO has refused to apprehend habal-habal drivers now operating in the city proper.
Now, that stance will be tested with the Supreme Court ruling and the positions taken by LTO 7 and other concerned national government agencies.