ILOILO – The League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Iloilo Chapter supports the call of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to ban from national highways tricycles and pedicabs. The ban would curb if not totally eliminate fatal vehicular accidents on highways, said Ajuy, Iloilo’s Mayor Jett Rojas, president of LMP-Iloilo.
In Ajuy alone, according to Rojas, an average of eight deaths from national highway mishaps involving tricycles and pedicabs are recorded annually.
“Pero subong nga tuig basi sobra na 10. This is a serious problem that we need to address,” said Rojas who was at the provincial capitol yesterday for the regular quarterly meeting of the Provincial Peace and Order Council.
How to implement the ban in the municipalities would be discussed by Iloilo’s mayors during a meeting on Oct. 9, said Rojas.
Under the Local Government Code, city and municipal mayors, through their respective sanggunians, are authorized to regulate the operation of tricycles within their territorial jurisdiction, subject to the guidelines prescribed by the Department of Transportation.
Rojas believed, without offering figures, that there are more casualties from vehicular accidents involving tricycles and pedicabs than in the government’s drug war.
“For safety reasons, no tricycle or pedicab should operate on national highways utilized by four-wheel vehicles greater than four tons and where normal speed exceeds 40 kilometers per hour,” according to DILG secretary Eduardo Año.
While the government recognizes that tricycles and pedicabs provide livelihood, Año said “allowing them on main thoroughfares poses hazards to other motor vehicles, the riding public, and even to the drivers themselves.”
“The regulation of tricycles and pedicabs on national highways is, therefore, to the best interest of everyone,” stressed Año.
Vehicles may only be allowed by concerned sangguniang panlungsod or sangguniang bayan to traverse main highways if there is no other alternative route, he added.
Año also urged local authorities to strictly adhere to the standards and guidelines set in Memorandum Circular 2007-01 which contains the basic considerations in the preparation of city or municipal tricycle and pedicab franchise and regulatory ordinance or code.
The guidelines include banning of tricycle and pedicab operations along national highways; prohibiting said vehicles to carry more passengers and goods than what they are designed for, or more than what is authorized in the franchise, among others./PN
