MANDAUE CITY, Cebu—Mandaue City will be allowing a 100-percent capacity for tricycles soon.
Members of the Tricycle-For-Hire Franchising Regulatory Board (TFHFRB) met on Wednesday, March 9, 2022, to discuss and approve a proposal to already allow tricycles to carry full capacity or accommodate five passengers at a time.
With this, the fare will also be reduced to P10 from P20, which was allowed during the pandemic.
Currently, tricycles are only allowed to ferry two passengers at a time.
Councilor Jimmy Lumapas, the transportation committee chairman of the City Council, said the policy may be implemented next week or as soon as a resolution allowing such change is passed by the Council.
Lumapas said there is now a need to allow tricycle drivers to operate on full capacity after the Land Franchising and Regulatory Board allowed public utility vehicles to do the same in areas under Alert Levels 1 and 2.
Mandaue City is under Alert Level 2.
Lumapas added that they have received a lot of complaints that tricycles in the city still have a higher fare compared to other local government units.
Mixed reactions
Despite the idea of operating to a full seating capacity, some tricycle drivers are not happy with the changes to be implemented, especially with the fare adjustment.
Trike driver Ricky Patiluna said there are still not a lot of passengers on the road and they could not ferry five passengers at a time all the time.
Patiluna said a P15 fare would be right, especially since the price of fuel has increased in the past month.
Lumapas said that if oil prices continue to rise, they will be calling for a meeting for a possible fare increase.
Passengers have also mixed reactions to the anticipated changes.
Evangeline Cuervo of barangay Opao expressed her happiness with the fare reduction.
“Mao nay maayo. Kanindot ba anang P10 oy, makatabang na sa mga pobre. Makapalit na ta og sud-an anang P10 nga madaginot,” said Cuervo.
(That is good. P10 is good because it can help the poor. We can buy food with the P10 that we are able to save.)
However, Ursula Cabahug said as a senior citizen, she is not really happy with the resumption of the full seating capacity.
“Maghuot unya ta, unsaon man ning senior ta? Delikado baya ang senior,” she said.
(It will be tight, how can that be for seniors like us? It is dangerous for seniors.)
/bmjo
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Mandaue tricycle drivers show mixed reactions to 2 passenger rule