HABAL-HABAL drivers in the rural areas of Talisay City will be subject to random inspections of their license and motorcycle registration.
This, after hundreds of Talisay residents have availed themselves of the E-Patrol Mobile Service offered by the Land Transportation Office (LTO-7) for licensing and renewal of registration of their vehicles and motorcycles, held Saturday, Feb. 15 to Monday, Feb. 17, 2020.
Jonathan Tumulak, head of the Talisay Traffic Operations Development Authority (CT-Toda), said they had requested the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to give the residents of Talisay City a chance, especially the habal-habal drivers.
Tumulak said that often the habal-habal drivers are the ones given citation tickets and find their motorcycles impounded.
“We hope that through this development, with the number of habal-habal drivers who availed of the program, once we conduct an inspection, none of them will be caught without a license or unregistered motorcycles,” said Tumulak in Cebuano.
Tumulak learned from drivers in the rural areas of the city that they had refused to process their license and register their vehicles because they believed that it would cost them nearly P7,000.
“Now they realize that it is not really expensive to get a license and registration, just over P1,000 including medical exam, etc. They are very grateful,” Tumulak said.
On Saturday, about 200 drivers took advantage of the program. As of Feb. 17, about 400 drivers have already availed themselves of it.
The CT-Toda has a record of 600 to 1,000 city drivers and most of them are driving habal-habal as means of rural transportation.
The CT-Toda will assess whether they should ask the LTO to bring E- Patrol back to Talisay City. (FMD/RSR)