Baguio City councilors slam application for 200 taxi units

By Jordan G. Habbiling

BAGUIO CITY -- The Baguio City Council urged the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to take into consideration the moratorium of the city on the application of all public utility vehicles (PUVs) for certificate of public convenience (CPC).

In a dialogue with the LTFRB during the Regular Session on Sept. 23, the City Council hit issuance of memorandum circular (MC) 2019-16 by the LTFRB which opens the application of taxi franchises for Baguio and La Trinidad despite the city’s moratorium on the acceptance of application for PUVs.

The councilors criticized the move of the LTFRB to open the application for 200 additional taxi franchises without consulting the local government.

“In Baguio City, there is a moratorium on the issuance of franchises to all types of PUVs. You have been issuing franchises left and right without considering this legislation from the local government. It is but appropriate on your part to reach out to the local government and check if the memorandum you are issuing is in concurrence or in contrary to the legislation of the city,” Councilor Arthur Allad-iw said.

City councilors said issuance of MC 2019-16 runs counter to the measures that the local government has been establishing to combat the worsening traffic congestion in the city.

Ronnie Corpuz, LTFRB board member- Central Office, said their office will look into ways on how they can take into account the city’s moratorium which will reflect in the Local Public Transport Route Plan (LPTRP) designed for the city.

The councilors expressed hope that the LTFRB will respect the moratorium of the city on the issuance of PUV franchises and as well as other measures imposed by the local government related to the matter.

In the same dialogue, the LTFRB clarified that the application for the 200 additional taxi units was endorsed on the grounds that there are more or less 183 abandoned franchises as per record of the LTFRB regional office.

According to the LTFRB, the additional 200 taxi units will supposedly cover for the abandoned franchises.

Lalaine Sobremonte, LTFRB-CAR regional director, said a memorandum circular came out stating a franchise will be considered “expired” if the owner failed to apply for the extension of validity of CPC.

Sobremonte said individual applications are not allowed as the required number of taxi units is at least 50.

The regional director claimed that taxi operators, including those whose franchises had expired, were advised to form a group in order to reach the minimum number of required units.

At present, there are three groups who were able to comply with the minimum number of required taxi units. However, their applications are pending before the regional office due to the appeal of the first applicant who was earlier disqualified.

Sobremonte revealed that these 150 units owned by the applicants are plying the streets of Baguio as private vehicles as the groups are awaiting decisions for their applications.

 “We are appealing to this August Body to allow these 150 units to serve the people of Baguio. We respect the moratorium, but we applied because we knew there is a need to provide more public utility vehicles to the public,” said Rey Bacoco, transport group representative.

Bacoco denied the claim that the main cause of traffic problems is the increase of public utility vehicles.

He pointed to the surge of the number of private cars as the source of the monstrous traffic jams in the city.

Several members of the city council, however, stood their ground in their earlier assertion that the number of existing taxi units can still service the city even with the population growth and expiration of franchises of some taxi units.

During the dialogue, the city council urged the immediate preparation of the LPTRP by the City Planning and Development Office and the Traffic Management Division of the City Engineer’s Office in coordination with the Traffic and Transport Management Committee of the LTFRB to identify the needs of the City in terms of public land transport service. The route plan will have to be submitted within 30 days for the appropriate action of the city council.