City lowers cost of tricycle steel plate to P220
ROXAS CITY – The P250 controversial steel plate for public utility tricycle plying the city streets was lowered by P30.00 after an hour and a half dialogue between City Mayor Vicente B. Bermejo and the operators and drivers of the tricycle associations on the afternoon of February 20, this year.
It was learned that some members of the Tricycle Operators and Drivers Association (TODA) publicly registered their criticism on the new steel plate because they perceived it as expensive. The new steel plate with a picture of Mayor Bermejo was intentionally designed so as not to be easily copied to minimize “colorum”.
“The new steel plates are distributed solely by the City Government under its Tricycle Franchising Regulatory Unit (TFRU). Such exclusive distribution by the TFRU, is a safety measure that will protect the interest of tricycle operators and drivers, as well as of the commuting public,” Bermejo stressed in an interview.
Just this January, TFRU required every tricycle to use a new steel plate and sticker before they can renew their mayor’s permit.
It can be remembered that during the administration of then City Mayor and now First District Congressman Antonio del Rosario, he also required public utility tricycles to have a new steel plates put at both the front and the back of the side car so as to identify the registered tricycle from the colorum. Such steel plates were manufactured and sold by a private contractor at P190 per pair.
On the other hand, many unscrupulous tricycle operators and drivers violate the law by buying a pair of steel plates and putting one copy to a tricycle and the other to another tricycle. Hence two tricycle units ply the city with the same steel plate number.
Mayor Bermejo believes that this is one of the many reasons of congestion in the city streets. “Taking the lesson from the past, the City Government decided to make just one plate per number rather than have a duplicate,” Bermejo added.
TODA members and officers were happy after the Mayor heeded their call to lower the price of the new steel plate from P250 to P220. According to Mrs. Russini Flores, TFRU Chief, the city government spends P230 per plate. With the decision of the Mayor, “the office does not have any single centavo from the steel plate,” Flores added.