The violation of health protocols by public transport drivers has been cited as the top reason why Cebu City is still not keen on letting inter-LGU jeepneys enter the city | CDN file
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The non-compliance of jeepneys, buses, and taxis with the minimum health protocols for public transport has drawn the concern of Councilor James Cuenco.
Cuenco serves as the City Council’s chairperson on the committee of transportation and also heads the City Jeepney Task Force.
The councilor has repeatedly expressed his concern in the City Council regarding reports of jeepneys and buses overloading passengers at night and of taxi drivers not wearing face masks.
“Badlungon gyod kaayo ang uban, dili mopatuo. That’s why I have written to the CCTO (Cebu City Transportation Office) to add more traffic enforcers on the streets,” said Cuenco in a phone interview with CDN Digital.
Cuenco said that public transport has the tendency to overload passengers at night because it can be difficult to detect for traffic enforcers.
The rush hour also contributed to the violation of the health protocols as the traffic jams and the limited public transport vehicles force passengers to wait for too long to get home tempting them to ride overloaded buses or jeepneys.
This behavior of the city’s own drivers has discouraged the government from allowing inter-local government unit (LGU) jeepneys from entering the city due to the possibility of worsening the city’s COVID-19 situation.
Cuenco said they could not raise the concern of the Talisay City and Mandaue City jeepneys’ entry to Cebu City without acknowledging the problems already caused by the transport system in the city.
The inter-LGU jeepneys will have to wait until the COVID-19 cases in the city drops before they can try again to propose their entry.
As for the public transport in Cebu City, Cuenco warns the drivers to comply with the health protocols or else they will lose their permits to ply the city streets.
The city government will also be opening a hotline for passengers to call if they see violations being incurred by the drivers.
Cuenco appealed to the drivers to follow the health protocols so that the city will not revert back to stricter quarantine classification and endanger their livelihood again. /rcg