IT’S funny that the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and the Land Transportation Office (LTO) will apprehend motorcycle-for-hire drivers only now when it has been decades since they started serving the people in different areas in the country not reached by bus or jeepneys.
The issue on the legality of the operation of motorcycles-for-hire (or habal-habal) only came to fore when Angkas sought to professionalize the business. Motorcycles are better and faster means of transportation than four-wheel vehicles in this time of traffic gridlock.
Republic Act (RA) 4136, or the Land Transportation and Traffic Code, says motorcycles cannot be used as a mode of transportation for hire. With the recent injunction issued by the Supreme Court, Angkas will have no other choice but to obey the order and stop its operation.
But LTO and LTFRB enforcers will find it difficult to determine whether a moving motorcycle with a back rider or passenger is operating as “habal-habal.” The only evidence that a motorcycle is hired to transport a passenger is when fare or money is given to the driver for the service rendered. Would the LTO apprehend a motorcycle driver ferrying a hitchhiker?
I could imagine how many motorcycles with passengers would the police or the LTO flag down when they start operating againsr motorcycle-for-hire drivers. This could cause traffic jams on the streets.
Perhaps I am not the only one who favors the professionalization of the habal-habal as pioneered by Angkas. The Department of Transportation (DOTr), the agency that knows the problem of transportation and traffic in the country, should have been the one to make the first step by recommending to Congress that it amends some provisions of RA 4136 to conform to the changing times.
RA 4136 should be amended to allow the operations of motorcycles-for-hire or habal-habal and to increase the fines for traffic violations. Most of the fines are already outdated that many drivers are not deterred by them anymore.
The operation of motorcycles-for-hire is not new. In Argentina, they call their two-wheel transportation for hire as motor-taxi. Bangkok also has it.
Angkas advertisements say it has a cellphone application just like Grab that would allow a passenger to know who the driver of the motorcycle is so that if something happens to him or her it would be easy to trace because of the application.
A SunStar Cebu story yesterday said that some 6,500 Angkas drivers will be affected by the Supreme Court ruling. These drivers are probably still paying the loan for the motorcycle they bought. Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, perhaps because of the coming elections, has taken on the cause of the Angkas drivers.
The City will provide rice to the affected drivers.
The City Council passed the resolution authored by Councilor Mary Ann delos Santos appropriating P15 million that will be taken from the Pagcor funds to purchase the rice. Councilor Raymond Garcia questioned its timing but Vice Mayor Edgar Labella feels sorry for the affected Angkas drivers, especially in this time of Christmas.
Mayor Tomas has invited House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Senate President Tito Sotto to a mass that he is offering for the Angkas drivers and their families on Sunday so that the two leaders could listen to the legitimate cause of the motorcycle-for-hire operators.