Cortes on trike ban on nat’l roads: We did not violate any law on that

Tricycle drivers urges Mandaue city gov't to return them to their old routes

Members of the tricycle drivers’ group Balik Rota Network hold a rally in front of the Mandaue City Hall on Monday, January 11, 2021. | Mary Rose Sagarino

MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes said he did not violate any laws when he ordered that tricycles could only ply the secondary roads.

Cortes said this after tricycle drivers’ group — The Mandaue City Tricycle Balik Rota Campaign Network — held a protest rally outside city hall on Monday, January 11, 2021.

The tricycle’s group was joined by members of the Pagkakaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON)-Cebu chapter during the rally. 

But Cortes said he did not violate any laws when he ordered a ban of tricycles on the national roads.

“Wala man tay giviolate ana. In fact, we are putting things in the proper perspective, ug gusto sila makig estorya we can sit down pero og rally wala tay mastorya ana,” Cortes said.

Read: Overcharging tricycle drivers in Mandaue face fine, arrest

The tricycle drivers group was calling on the Mandaue City government to return them to their old routes, which would cross and sometimes traverse the national roads.

They cited the lack of passengers on the secondary roads, which were made worse by the measures implemented on tricycles to prevent the spread of the virus.

Ronilo Gahator, PISTON-Cebu Vice president, said the drivers had been suffering to meet the needs of their families’ everyday needs.

Gahator said that before the pandemic the tricycle drivers could bring home P500 a day to their families but now they could only earn P100 a day with lesser passengers on secondary roads and the “one passenger policy” for tricycles.

This means that only one passenger can ride the tricycle at a time.

Read: DILG bans tricycles, pedicabs on national roads

“As much as we wanted to help them pero we have also to protect sa other sectors wala man nato sila kulbi,” he said.

He also denied favoring the tricycle drivers’ group’s allegations that he was favoring the Ceres Buses over the tricycles.

“Wala man tay gipaboran gani ang tricycle drivers usa sa ato’ng gipaningkamutan nga operate gyud dayun,” he said.

(We did not favor anyone. Yet the tricycle drivers are one of those we did our best to help so that they could operate at the soonest time possible.)

“Sa diha’ng nihangyo sila nga dili madala ang “one passenger policy” gitagaan na tog pabor nga pasakaan ang plitehan, he said.

(When they requested that they could not endure the ‘one passenger policy’, we took action and we raised the fare.)

“Sa tinud anay lang ato gyud nang gipaningkamutan even kanang distribution. Sa support wala gyod na nato sila kalimte sukad kaniadto hangtud karun, wala gyud na nato pasagdi,” said Cortes.

(Truthfully, we will work hard even in the distribution. We did not forget them with regard to support and we took care of them and that has happened in the past as well.)

Read: Mandaue tricycle group wants to return to old routes