Trike drivers seek mayor's consideration over ban on city streets
The Iloilo City Alliance of Tricycle Operators and Drivers Association (ICATODA) has requested Mayor Jerry Treñas to allow them to enter the city during rush hours.
The drivers association yesterday went to the Robinsons mall, where the city mayor's office is located, to seek audience with the chief executive for their request. The association led by its president Norberto Vallajera cited City Ordinance 205-1984 which allows them to enter the city's main thoroughfares.
The drivers association specifically asked that they may be allowed to enter the city from 6:00-8:00 in the morning and 4:30 to 5:30 in the afternoon. There are some 5,000 tricycle units that are members of the ICATODA. They said it is during such hours that they could pick up passengers mostly students.
Some of tricycle drivers went to the mall to dramatize their request. Currently, the Traffic Technical Working Group is effecting changes in the traffic system in the city.
However, this early, the group's request is deemed impractical and impossible since the ordinance was already superseded by Republic Act 4136 Land Transportation Code of the Philippines. The law prohibits the entry of the tricycle units in major streets.
Mayor Jerry P. Treñas vowed to act soon on the complaints of tricycle and trisikad drivers wanting to pass national streets and corners without sanctions from traffic policemen.
The city's chief executive said he had submitted the proposal of the 5,000-strong ICATODA to the technical working group composed of representatives of the city legal office and traffic management and engineering unit (TMEU), councilor Erwin Plagata who is in charge of the SP Committee on Transportation, Jose Tengco and Alan Garingalao who recently underwent traffic training abroad and Bobby Dumanil, to study the proposal.
Traffic policemen and auxiliaries began a strict crackdown on traffic violators, especially trike drivers, last week in a move to decongest national roads and main streets of trikes and unwanted parked vehicles.
TMEU reported the apprehension of more than 300 tricycles and trisikads and drivers who violated traffic laws at the start of the crackdown, especially those passing national roads here.
Treñas said the TWG is slated to meet within the week to discuss the ICATODA proposal that aims to give the trike drivers more leeway during peak hours.
ICATODA claimed that City Ordinance 205 regulates the route and operation of motorized tricycles for hire service in specific streets and roads in the city that also covers some national street junctions. The ordinance was never amended since its passage on November 8, 1984.
However, the Land Transportation and Traffic Code, Republic Act 4136 strictly prohibits vehicles not franchised by the national agency to pass national roads.
(with reports from PNA)