The City Council, during last Monday’s regular session, demanded an explanation from the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) on its alleged inaction on the numerous previous resolutions tracing back from the previous composition of the city legislative body opposing the opening of additional franchises for public utility vehicles plying the different routes in the city as it is in violation of the moratorium issued by the board over a decade ago.
In a resolution, city legislators also requested the LTFRB to furnish the body with the list of approved taxi franchises, abandoned franchises, and expired franchises to guide them in future actions on the re-opening of abandoned and expired franchises in Baguio and La Trinidad to any point of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).
Earlier, a number of taxi operators and drivers submitted a petition dated August 3, 2020, opposing the proposed re-opening of abandoned and expired taxi franchises pursuant to LTFRB Resolution No. 117, series of 2020, that re-opened the selection process under LTFRB Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 2019-016 that opened additional 200 taxi franchises for Baguio and La Trinidad, Benguet to any point in CAR.
Last year, the council approved Resolution No. 466, series of 2019, opposing the implementation of MC No. 2019-016 and strongly recommending to the LTFRB central office to recall the aforesaid memorandum in so far as Baguio City is affected.
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However, some applicants appeared before the council and informed city legislators that the new franchises that were re-opened were replacements of the abandoned and expired franchises that trace back to 2017 because the LTFRB started rejecting individual applications as the same must be done through fleet management by a corporation or a cooperative pursuant to the government’s Public Utility Vehicle (PUV) modernization plan.
At the same time, the council also requested the City Engineering Office (CEO) traffic and transportation management division to make a presentation on the latest update of the Local Public Transport Route Plan (LPTRP), one of the requirements of the PUV modernization plan for local governments to comply.
Further, the CEO was asked to make a presentation on whether or not the city still needs additional taxi franchises to serve as a basis in their future decisions on the matter.
Based on the data obtained from the LTFRB-CAR, there are now 3,233 taxi units that are plying the different routes in the city compared to the 3,433 taxi units that were existing several years ago prior to the implementation of the government’s PUV modernization program.
The LTFRB started accepting applications for the opened 200 abandoned and expired franchises after the earlier 4 transport cooperatives and corporations that applied for the same were disqualified by the agency’s pre-qualification and evaluation committee for their alleged failure to comply with the minimum requirements.
The council tasked the Committee on Public Utilities, traffic and Transport Legislation to prepare the documents that will be attached to the approved resolution before transmittal to the LTFRB central office for their information and guidance.
By Dexter A. See
Photo by Armando M. Bolislis
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