Who collects P20 a day from habal-habal (motorcycle-for-hire) drivers in Mambaling?
I received information that the “uniformed and organized” habal-habal drivers that continue to make the national highway in Barangay Mambaling as their terminal under the nose of Cebu City Hall and transport agencies are indeed being backed by a syndicate.
I discussed this in my previous column (“The national highway as habal-habal terminal”; Opinion, page 13, June 1 issue of Cebu Daily News-eds), and explained why such a practice is highly illegal since a single motorcycle could not be given a franchise for public conveyance.
If that’s illegal, how much more so the use of the side of the road as a terminal that would only aggravate traffic congestion.
A habal-habal driver disclosed that all of them who were wearing uniforms pay P20 per day to a female collector who is also connected to a government office in Cebu City.
The source said there are 370 of them staying in the areas from Jai Alai up to the corner of a fast food chain going to Punta Princesa.
I have the names of the collector and the person/s to whom she would remit her collection, but I would not name them here pending the presentation of evidence.
The source said this is the reason why they become so daring and even wear a uniform because they have been assured of protection. They were caught three times by the Cebu City Transportation Office (CTTO), but it stopped due to the intervention of their protectors.
However, the source said since they were organized last year, their members have grown from 100 at first to 370 at the last count.
Due to the increasing number of habal-habal drivers operating at a makeshift terminal at the national highway, their earnings have also dwindled.
At first they didn’t mind paying P20 a day because they would also earn as much as P400 a day excluding the rent of their motorcycle and gasoline.
The source said since there are so many of them now, some of their members would be lucky enough if they could bring home P150 for a day’s work.
Let us do the math here. If there are 370 habal-habal drivers paying P20 a day to the syndicate providing them protection, then they could get P7,400 a day. And if we multiply this by 30 days, the syndicate can earn P222,000 per month without taxes and other deductions.
An increasing membership base means declining income for these drivers, and so it has now become an issue to the paying haba-habal driver if indeed their daily payment is logical.
The source explained that after the number of habal-habal drivers increased, they have become more visible in the national highway, even constricting the size of the road because their number is more than the passengers who want to be brought to a mall in the South Road Properties (SRP).
This could be the reason why at any time of the day there are many habal-habal drivers staying at the side of the road calling out for passengers.
I hope that the threat made by President Rodrigo Duterte during his victory party last month could frighten this syndicate that’s making a mockery of our traffic laws and profiting from the hapless habal-habal drivers by giving them a false sense of security.
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