City gov’t taps media in fight vs. colorum trikes
ROXAS CITY – City Mayor Vicente Bermejo said that he wanted to tap members of the local media to be part of the flying squad to crack down on colorum tricycles that are still illegally plying their routes in the city.
This was said by Bermejo during the coffee talk with the local media at the mayor’s office last Wednesday.
According to him, local media must be part of the flying task force against colorum tricycles to erase doubts that settlements occur between traffic aides and the colorum operators.
Earlier, Bermejo said the publication of the anti-colorum ordinance is about to finish, after which its implementation will kick off.
The mayor said that the ordinance targets 1,500 colorum tricycles in the city.
Penalties in the said ordinance are the following: 1st offense, P1,500; 2nd offense, P3,000; and 3rd offense, P5,000 and the colorum tricycles will be impounded.
According to Bermejo, the flying squad which is tasked to apprehend colorum tricycles will be composed of representatives from the Tricycle Franchising and Regulatory Unit (TFRU), several tricycle operators and driver’s associations (TODAs), police and several others.
Asked what he will do about 700 colorum operators who wanted to have franchise, Bermejo said that it will depend on the 3,500 franchise holders if they will agree to it.
He said that the anti-colurum ordinance was requested by the 3,500 franchise holders to the city government for their protection.
“Let’s implement first the anti-colorum ordinance before deciding on what to do with the colorum ones,” Bermejo said.