IN PREPARATION for the summer season and the influx of tourists in the city, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) is conducting seminars on drivers, especially cab drivers.
LTFRB-Davao administrative officer Edgar Violan said Monday that the agency, in partnership with the Metro Davao Taxi Operators Association, conduct the seminars to ensure that Davao City won't have a bad face to tourists when it comes to transport service.
"We regularly meet and remind taxi operators or franchise owners to make sure their taxi drivers are well-mannered and disciplined. There are penalties corresponding to that: P3,000 for arrogance and other misbehavior, and for overcharging," Violan said in a phone interview.
Violan admitted that there have been more complaints lately but encourages that the public report these acts to the authorities.
"Maraming mga complaints kaming nare-receive and they are now being bring investigated here in the office. Mas marami ring reports ngayon dahil mas stricto ang head on the monitoring of complaints," Violan said.
All taxi units in the city are now air-conditioned since last December 31, Violan said.
Deadline
"We have around 4,200 taxis in the city but we are still under inventory and we estimate that this has gone down for the reasons that they are being maintained or at rest. We estimate that at any given time the number of taxis roaming the city won't exceed 3,500," Violan said.
Violan also announced that on Wednesday, there will be filing of application of extension of validity of expired certificates of public convenience (CPC) provisioned under Memoramdum Circular (MC) Number 2010-004.
One February 20, 2009, the LTFRB issued MC number 2009-006 dubbed Revised Policy on Application for Extension of Validity of Expired (CPCs) of All Types of Services, wherein the said memorandum was only made effective until December 31, 2009.
"For humanitarian considerations, and in order to give reasonable period to those that will be affected by the prescribed period for late filing, the Board extended the filing of Application of Extension of Validity of Expired CPC until March 31," the memorandum read.
"Kumbaga ito na ang deadliest deadline, after ng March 31, hindi na pwedeng mag-file sila ng application. We are now conducting an inventory and we are consolidating ang data nationwide so hindi sila pwedeng mag-file which would disrupt our processing. So I am reminding na kung meron kayong nagexpire na mga permits then you have to do this on or before March 31," Violan said.
The said memorandum does not apply to public utility buses and public utility jeepneys.
"Other modifications of the earlier memorandum are: the regular penalty for late filing shall be in the amoung of P10,000 per unit; and in addition to the mentioned penalty, P750 per month per unit shall also be imposed," Violan said. (JCZ)