CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Council requested the Office of Mayor to submit the names of the habal-habal drivers, who received rice subsidy from the city government on February 2019, a few months before the May 13 elections.
Cebu City Councilor Pastor “Jun” Alcover, Jr., in his privilege speech, said that despite his request to obtain a copy of the list on February 26, the Office of the Mayor has only submitted the qualifications and standards employed in pre-identifying the habal-habal drivers.
The Office of the Mayor said that the Two-wheeled Motor Vehicle Monitoring, Coordinating, and Assistance Unit (TMV-MCAU) is still encoding the names of the 6,000 registered habal-habal drivers in the city qualified to receive the subsidy.
Alcover said he was dissatisfied with this response of the Office of the Mayor and added that this was not fair to the other habal-habal drivers who were not approved to be beneficieries.
“That’s why we request the list as a sign of transparency! Transparency does not erase doubts coming from the people but it lessens that doubt, hence, transparency is imperative in good governance,” said Alcover.
Alcover moved to request the Office of the Mayor to submit the list to the Council before the May 13 elections.
The City Council agreed to request the list from the Mayor’s Office before the elections for transparency.
On February 23, at least 3,000 habal-habal drivers received their rice subsidy as promised by Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
These include habal-habal (motorcycle-for-hire) and Angkas drivers who were affected by the decision of the Supreme Court to suspend Angkas operations.
According to TMV-MCAU, many of the habal-habal drivers are yet to claim their rice subsidy.
To get the sack of rice, the driver must pass the requirements to the TMV-MCAU Office including a photocopy of the driver’s license, voter’s certificate, and certificate of ownership of the motorcyle or its Land Transportation Office (LTO) registration. ###