Seares: Bill on motorcycles-for-hire won’t exclude Angkas, pass before polls

CEBU City Councilor June Alcover will have no more reason to rage against the proposed bill that will regulate motorcycles-for-hire. Or will he?

News stories say House Bill #8059 was approved on second reading but the House takes a recess on Feb. 6; no way it will pass before the elections.

The bill consolidates five versions filed by principal authors who include Reps. Raul del Mar and Ramon Durano VI of Cebu. Del Mar told a media group last Saturday (Feb. 2) that the fused bill uses the general term “motorcycle-for-hire” and defines motorcycles as those registered with the Land Transportation Office.

Motorbikes-for-hire bear different names throughout the country although the Cebuano-Bisaya “habal-habal” is the more widely used. A technical working group struck out “Angkas” too. It is a private corporate brand for the motorcycles-for-hire that operate under an organized company using high-tech app for access, deployment and safety.

And Alcover was right: specifying Angkas and lumping it with habal-habal would’ve given undue advantage to a private firm.

Equal protection clause

Last Jan. 30, however, when news of the approval of the motorcycle-for-hire bill on second reading broke, Alcover was quoted as saying he was for the bill “as long as Angkas is not included.” Text of the fused version of the bill still had to be posted as of this writing. We don’t know the precise text yet.

But, as we said here earlier, Angkas cannot be excluded. While it does not have to be specified by name, the ride-sharing firm cannot also be excluded. The proposed bill applies to all motorcycles registered with the government agency.

To single out Angkas and ban its inclusion as operator of motorcycles-for-hire is to discriminate against a specific sector and violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause.

Angkas is in business, Alcover protested. But so are habal-habal drivers, who can also organize by themselves or under an entrepreneur just like Angkas to improve service and meet safety demands.

Reasons for ban

Republic Act 4136, the transportation law, expressly prohibits “motorcycles, scooters, and other motor-wheel attachments” from being used as public transport for passenger or freight “under any circumstance.”

HB #8959, if it becomes a law, will change that policy laid down in 1964. But lawmakers have to be careful in regulating the operation of motorcycles-for-hire.

The 55-year-old ban has reasons that to this day have remained valid: the danger that two-wheel vehicles pose as passenger or freight carrier; the heavier pollution they emit; the noise they produce; and the competition they give to pedestrians on limited walking spaces.

Regulation must curb or reduce the disadvantages of having motorcycles. The advantage, of course, is having means of transport to low-income families and in areas not accessible by four-wheel jeeps or buses.

Scramble for votes

Passage of the amending law takes time, in this case, for public benefit. More thorough study of the regulatory provisions will address concerns about public safety and public health.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr), which has promised to come up with rules for a reprieve until the law can be passed, is also taking the pace it needs.

It may not be rushed into allowing the motorcycles-for-hire to return before the elections just to earn votes for the candidates professing to help the drivers.

The scramble to push the bill and a temporary DOTr order is apparently aimed to snag voters’ support.

What councilor can do

Alcover cannot be said to be a party to the rush. He had his chance when he filed the bill as a party-list congressman but his bill never saw the light of day. Now as councilor, in assailing Angkas, he alienates the app-sharing drivers but is not sure of winning habal-habal drivers’ affection.

What he can do is push for provisions in the bill that will help assure public safety and public health with the operation of motorcycles-for-hire.