LTFRB-7 Director Eduardo Montealto | Futch Anthony Inso
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board in Central Visayas (LTFRB-7) will summon the operator of Worldwide Taxi, after a post in social networking site, Facebook, went viral.
In Melai Balsomo’s Facebook account, she narrates the incident after a Worldwide Taxi unit bearing a body number of 0128 and plate number VU 9614 that they have hailed refused to give them a ride.
The post added that the taxi driver saw some foreigners who were also looking for taxi to ride.
Balsomo further said that they had a person with a disability (PWD) companion when the incident happened.
“Kani nga taxi walay kunsencya!! Gaba.an ka unta! Ni para kmi , ni hunong ka! Nagpa abot ka… pagka kita nimo sa mga foreigner, ang mga foreigner imo gipasakay! Wala ka nag huna huna or kunsencya !ang disable na akong kuyog, naningkamot padung sa imuha! Sa duol na kmi… nibalibad ka! Tapos lahi imo gipasakay ang duha ka foreigner! Knsa naay idea ani kung asa n cya e reklamo?” Balsomo’s facebook post narrates.
Balsomo took a picture of the taxi unit and posted the incident on Facebook on March 1, 2019.
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Currently, the post had already gathered around 1200 comments and 3200 shares. Most of the netizens got angry and asked the LTFRB to penalize the taxi driver.
LTFRB-7 Regional Director Eduardo Montealto Jr. said that they would issue a show-cause order and summon the operator before their office.
“Among ipatawag ang operator ana diri unya. I-show-cause, ipa-explain, duna mi summon nga ikoan. Ipa-explain namo ingon ana, unsay nahitabo,” Montealto said.
He said that an “isnabero” taxi driver might face a penalty of P5,000 for the first offense.
He said but if they would find out in their record that the driver had already faced the same complaint, the penalty might also increase.
“Pwede pana padak-an ang penalty kay nag-involve ni og PWD. Dili lang ordinary ang iyang atubangon,” he added.
Montealto added that they might cancel or suspend the franchise of the taxi unit, especially if they found out that it had already been involved in several traffic violations.| dbs