Oplan Biyaheng Ayos: 24 PUVs fail LTO-7’s roadworthiness test

| Contributed photo

LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu- A total of 24 public utility vehicles (PUVs) failed to pass the roadworthiness inspection conducted by the Land Transportation Office in Central Visayas (LTO-7), a few days before commuters would start to crowd transport terminals in the region to go home to their provinces for the Holy Week celebration.

LTO-7 Director Victor Emmanuel Caindec said that the 24 PUVs would not be allowed to ply its routes, until such time that the deficiencies that were noted by the inspection team, were corrected.

“Our Operations Division Chief Aden Belza together with his team asked [the drivers of the] 24 PUVs to return to their garage and rectify their defects which they failed upon inspection before they can resume operations,” Caindec said.

The inspection was made in line with the implementation of the national government’s “Oplan Biyaheng Ayos!: Semana Santa and Summere Vacation 2023” campaign which started on March 31.

READ: LTO-7 to conduct random vehicle inspections ahead of Holy Week

Caindec said that as of April 3,  LTO-7 personnel were already able to inspect a total of 206 PUVs as they also visited the different terminals in the region.

Of the 24 PUVs that failed their inspection, 15 were buses while nine were from the public utility vans.

Among the violations found were the continued use of worn-out tires, defective signal lights, non-functioning wiper/washer, broken windshield, and the presence of defective seatbelts.

Caindec said they also prohibit PUVs that lacked a valid certificate of public convenience (CPC) to leave their respective terminals.  Drivers who were found to lack the required licenses were also barred from plying their assigned routes.

“We are in the different PUV terminals in the region and as always during long holidays such as these, our Oplan team will check every PUV that goes through the terminal before they can accept passengers,” he said.

“No issuance yet of anything for both the drivers and operators, so that we can give them more time to correct their defects. Likewise, our random inspections will continue even outside these terminals so that we can monitor if they are still compliant with roadworthiness,” Caindec added.

Oplan Biyaheng Ayos will continue until Monday, April 10, which was earlier declared by the President a non-working holiday in observance of the Araw ng Kagitingan that was originally scheduled on April 9, a Sunday.

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