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BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – Starting Oct. 10, the Bacolod Traffic Authority Office (BTAO) will run after colorum vans.
BTAO head Luisito Acebuche said they will start with the vans not covered by the business permit of the DPL Rent a Car & Tours / DPL Airport Shuttle Services on Lopez Jaena Street but parking at the business’ property.
The BTAO will operate alongside the Land Transportation Office and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.
The Sangguniang Panlungsod committee on transportation held a hearing on colorum vans on Friday in light of a complaint from Rene Macasa, branch manager of the Ceres bus operator Vallacar Transit, Inc.
Operators of colorum vans use the “space and facility” of DPL, Macasa claimed.
A van is considered colorum if it has no franchise or is out of route.
Vans with a “tourist” franchise but collect payment from individual passengers or with expired or suspended franchise are colorum, too.
Earlier Councilor Dindo Ramos, committee chairman, said the city government does not allow the operation of colorum vehicles. He called it an “insult to the city officials.”
Yesterday Ramos told the hearing he has also observed that “more than 50 percent” of tricycles here operate without franchise.
“The city will lose revenue because of them,” the councilor said. “At the same time, their passengers have no security.”
He vowed to file a resolution directing the BTAO to be “consistent” in its operation against colorum vans and tricycles.
At the hearing, DPL operator Glendale Depasucat insisted his business is legal.
But according to Acebuche, the BTAO found several vans parking at the DPL’s property — contrary to what was stated on its business permit that it is a rent-a-car service with only seven units.
The DPL must remove the vans not covered by its business permit, he said. The BTAO will inspect the area again on Oct. 10, he added.
The BTAO will also look into other vans-for-hire businesses, specifically in Barangay Sum-ag.
Car rental businesses must operate with only the number of units stated in their business permit, Ramos stressed./PN
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