THE Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has ordered local government units (LGUs) to each draft a tricycle route plan (TRP).
The TRP should limit light three-wheelers such as tricycles and pedicabs to the barangay roads and strictly prohibit them from using national roads or highways.
Tricycles and other light three-wheeled contraptions that ply highways pose a danger to their passengers and to other drivers because of their small size, lack of safeguards for their passengers, and slower speed. They also stall traffic on national roads.
As a rule, no tricycles, pedicabs, or motorized pedicabs, including four-wheel vehicles greater than four tons, are allowed to ply national highways.
30 days
The DILG ordered the LGUs to create a tricycle task force to carry this out within 30 days from the issuance of DILG Memorandum Circular 2020-036.
MC 2020-036 was issued on Feb. 17, 2020, which gives the task forces until mid-March to submit their TRPs.
Ian Kenneth Lucero, DILG-7 local government monitoring and evaluation division head, said the TRP will be the basis for the enactment of ordinances related to tricycle operations.
The TRP must be compliant with existing guidelines of the Department of Transportation, he said.
The TRP must also include a schematic map on the locations of tricycle terminals, the national highways of the LGU and the portions of the highway that may be used by tricycles when there is no alternative route.
The TRP is valid for two years and subject to review from time to time.
Lucero said this tricycle task force is different from any existing tricycle regulatory board or unit of an LGU, if any.
The tricycle task force will be composed of the mayor as chairman; chief of police or the police city director as vice chairman; the chairman of the Sanggunian’s committee on transportation; city and municipal league of presidents; head of the tricycle regulatory board, if any; planning and development officer of the LGU, and traffic management officer.
The task force can call a public hearing on the TRP, Lucero said.
The local chief executive who fails to form the task force will be made to explain and may even be sanctioned, Lucero said.
In a statement on Wednesday, DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said compliance with the tricycle ban order would form part of the assessment of the LGUs’ compliance on the presidential directive on road clearing.
He said non-compliance with the latest directive would warrant the issuance of a show-cause order, and failure to provide a sufficient response would be a ground for the filing of administrative cases pursuant to Section 60 of the Local Government Code and other laws and policies.
Cebu City, Minglanilla
The Cebu City Transportation Office “is in the works towards a tricycle route plan,” said CCTO executive director Rey Gealon.
Gealon said he has directed the CCTO to implement the DILG memorandum in “full force.”
CCTO operations chief Erwin Navales says his team has intensified its monitoring of tricycles, pedicabs and e-trikes in traffic-heavy areas—Barangays Pardo, Inayawan, Labangon and Punta Princesa in the south, and Carbon Public Market.
Navales said he and his team are making sure the light three-wheelers do not go beyond the barangay roads.
In Minglanilla where tricycles are the primary mode of transportation within the town, Mayor Elanito Peña said he will convene next month the tricycle franchising committee to come up with a TRP.
Drivers’ side
Two tricycle drivers in the densely populated barangay of Ermita, Cebu City, said they take the risk of getting apprehended when they use the national highway for the sake of earning more.
They earn very little if they wait for passengers only within the barangay roads, they said. They requested they not be named.
Passengers always go for the tricyle that’s nearest where they take or get off from the jeepney or bus. (WBS, KFD, JJL, JKV)