Tricycle fares in Lucena City have increased with tacit approval by officials and the public, citing that the ordinance setting P8.50 per passenger is outdated. Sy Bang wants a public hearing to update the matter.
THE RIDING public in Lucena City is up in arms against the almost cut-throat rates being demanded by tricycle drivers within and outside the city poblacion.
Liza Malapitan, a Philippine Ports Authority employee in Bgy. Dalahican, has expressed dismay and exasperation of the P20 fare that she has to pay from city proper to her home in Bgy. Cotta.
“Sabihin mo naman kay mayor yung pamasahe pababain na. Bakit sa Sariaya 10 pesos na lang ulit? Saan ba kasi nanggaling ang order na gawing P20 ang pamasahe? Kahit panu naman siguro may magagawa diyan si mayor,” Malapitan told Opinyon Quezonin.
“P20 nga po ang bayad e, kahit malapit bente pa din ang singil ng mga tricycle drivers,” Angeline Ebreo, a netizen said in a comment in Facebook.
Ash Fall commented on the issue: “Kahit dati pa ay di ko naranasan yang P8.50 na yan, noong high school pa ako, 13 yrs. ago, ang bayad Red-V to Dupay pag solo ay P15 talaga.”
The Facebook page called Anti-Epal Lucena expressed annoyance that trike drivers are demanding P100-P150 from University Site to City Proper and P70-P100 from City Proper to SM-Lucena adding that in the middle of the way the drivers are still accepting passengers.
“Wala bang guidelines per kilometer mga TODA dito sa Lucena?” Anti-Epal Lucena asked several local government agencies connected with the tricycle transportation sector in the city.
P8.50 minimum fare
Concerned of the rising grumbling of the riding public in the city, Eddison Sy Bang, son of Bgy. 5 chairman Edward Sy Bang, has posted in his Facebook page “The Lucena Tricycle Driver Challenge” reminding tricycle drivers and operators that the minimum fare of every tricycle passenger within the city poblacion is only P8.50.
Citing City Ordinance 2304 passed in 2008, the young Sy Bang insisted that the legal fare within the city poblacion consisting of 11 barangays is only P8.50 until the present, whether it is day or night, rain or shine, whether the trike driver has to wait in line for passengers in a terminal or not and whether there is Covid pandemic or none.
Sy Bang even put up a prominent billboard along Quezon Avenue in the city poblacion showing “Ang Opisyal na Taripa ng Tricycle sa Lungsod ng Lucena” to call the attention of both the tricycle passengers and the numerous Tricycle Operators and Drivers Associations (TODA) about the official basic rates within the city proper and the penalties of fines, suspension and revocation of franchise for offenses or violations of the city ordinance such as overcharging, refusing a riding passenger, and non-display of tariff rates inside the tricycle.
Outdated tariff rates
Sy Bang has demanded a revision of the outdated tariff rates and called on the city government, particularly the Tricycle Franchising and Regulatory Office (TFRO) and the Sangguniang Panglungsod to come up with a new matrix fare that would be fair and reasonable for the tricycle riding public and the tricycle drivers and operators in the city.
“Panahon na para irebisa ang ating ordinansa para sa ating mananakay na magkaroon ng bagong taripa para sa buong Lucena, sa loob at labas ng city poblacion” Sy Bang, 31, a law student at Manuel S. Enverga University, told local reporters.
He said that a public hearing should be conducted involving all the stakeholders in the tricycle transport sector – the concerned members of the city legislative council, the TFRO, the TODAs, business sector and the riding public.
TODA's view
Rowelan Llorin, president of TODA-Bel-air in Bgy. 10, which has 77 member operators and drivers acknowledged that the TFRO has not yet raised the basic tariff rate of P8.50-P10.
“Nasa pasahero ang pang-unawa lalo na ngayon pandemic, di pwede magsakay ng tatlo o apat. Pag magbayad naman ng P10 ang pasahero, tanggap naman namin; kung anong kaya ng pasahero, tanggapin,” Llorin said in an interview inside their makeshift terminal in Bel-Air subdivision in Bgy. 10.
Llorin, who also drives his own passenger tricycle, said that there are 20 trike drivers in their group who are engaged in ‘boundary system’ wherein they pay P120-P160 for a fixed number of hours a day to the tricycle owner or operator. There are 57 trike owners or operators holding a franchise in their group.
Llorin said that before the pandemic the ‘boundary trike drivers’ usually bring home a net income of up to P300 a day after deducting the boundary fee and gasoline, depending on the trip. But now with pandemic still raging, he said they barely earn enough for their family.
There are over 120 TODA groups in Lucena and making a conservative estimate of 50 members each, there will easily be 6,000 passenger tricycles roaming around the city and several of them have no franchise, Llorin said.
Opinyon tried three times to interview TFRO chief Noriel Obcinea but he postponed the interview.
“The 40-strong enforcers at TFRO appear helpless in monitoring and apprehending the proliferation of ‘colorum’ tricycles or those that have no legitimate franchise to engage in loading passengers,” a trike operator and franchise holder who declined to be named told Opinyon. He said that these colorums are the ones that mostly practice overcharging and are rude to the hapless passengers.#