TRICYCLE MATTERS. The task force on tricycle on Wednesday (March 4, 2020) discusses at the city hall the Department of the Interior and Local Government memorandum order banning tricycles on national highways. The task force will be reviewing franchises issued by the city government, said Jeck Conlu, head of the Iloilo City Public Safety and Transportation Management Office. (PNA photo by Perla G. Lena)
ILOILO CITY – Chairmen of the 46 barangays in this city that failed in the road clearing evaluation of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) have committed to abide and be compliant by April 30 this year.
This was their commitment following a meeting with Mayor Jerry P. Treñas on Wednesday, where he told them he won’t hesitate to impose administrative charges when the DILG orders him to do so.
“They have until April 30, so their 75 days will end in April. That is more than sufficient enough, that will give them sufficient time to comply. I told them it will l be very difficult for me not to impose the administrative sanctions,” he said in an interview.
The evaluation was made by the DILG validation team, who has representatives from the Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO) and senior citizens as members.
They were able to validate 139 of the city’s 180 barangays. The mayor said that he won’t be sure if there are non-compliant in the remaining 41 barangays.
The mayor was only given a list of villages that passed and failed. There was no information on what aspect of the validation the villages failed. However, he was told that 25 percent of their rating was for the approved ordinance on illegal parking; most of them have no approved ordinance.
“They promised to do everything and to be compliant on or before April 30,” he added.
Meantime, the city government’s task force on tricycles also met on Tuesday where they discussed the order of the DILG to ban pedicabs and tricycles from national highways.
In an interview Thursday, Jeck Conlu, head of the PSTMO said that they target to complete the review of the franchises that were issued by the local government to tricycles.
He said the DILG memorandum order 2020-036 signed by Secretary Eduardo Año does not totally prohibit them from operating on national highways but they just have to be regulated. “We can cut short or add to their routes. We have 30 days to do this,” he said.
Once they are done with the review, it will be forwarded to the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP).
However, they could not issue franchises because the city government is in the process of working on its Local Public Road Transport Plan (LPTRP).
A joint memorandum of the DILG and the Department of Transportation states that they could not issue a new franchise until the LPTRP is completed. (PNA)
