Last Monday, Atty. Oliver T. Rodulfo reminded the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) provincial office regarding its obligation to implement a memorandum circular prohibiting tricycles, pedicabs and motorized pedicabs from operating on national highways in Catanduanes.
In a letter to DILG Provincial Director Uldarico S. Razal Jr., the lawyer noted that national roads in the province, particularly in Bato, San Andres and Virac are filled with tricycles and pedicabs.
Undisciplined drivers of these vehicles, the former 2022 congressional candidate stated, are the kings of the national highway and do not even use the lane designated for them, causing traffic and inconvenience not only to commuters but other vehicles.
He accused the DILG official of not doing anything to enforce the DILG circular and protect the interest and safety of the riding public, threatening to file criminal and administrative charges if the circular is not enforced within 15 days.
As early as 2020, during the Duterte administration’s Road Clearing Program, the DILG had already ordered local chief executives to strictly implement the ban on tricycles, pedicabs and motorized pedicabs on national highways and to create a tricycle task force that shall draw up a tricycle route plan in their areas.
The task force is composed of the mayor as chairman, the chief of police as vice-chairman, and the Sanggunian’s committee chair on transportation or public safety, the president of the Liga ng mga Barangay, the head of the tricycle regulatory board, the head of the Department of Public Order and Safety, the planning and development officer, the head of the traffic management office, and the local government operations officer as members.
The body is tasked to meet with stakeholders and rationalize all tricycle routes to enforce the ban, identify national roads within the jurisdiction of the LGU, and determine the present and proposed routes in view of drafting a tricycle route plan (TRP) within 30 days from the issuance of the memorandum.
The plan should include a schematic map of the location of tricycle terminals, the national highways of the LGU and the portions thereof to be used by tricycles if there is no alternative route.
The plan must also detail the installation of appropriate signages, marks for lanes and other safety features to guide all vehicles; create awareness among residents and motorists of new tricycle routes or portions of highways allowed to tricycles because of lack of alternative route; a color scheme or emblem for tricycles that ply a route traversing a national highway; and penalties for violators.
Task forces of adjacent LGUs must coordinate and come up with a combined TRP. Each TRP is valid from two years after the issuance of the memorandum.
Three years after the issuance of DILG MC No. 2020-036, it is likely that not one of the 11 municipalities in the province of Catanduanes has come up with an approved Tricycle Route Plan.
Thus, Atty. Rodulfo does not even need to wait for Dir. Razal to implement the circular within 15 days as he can already file appropriate administrative charges against the 11 towns’ chief executives for non-compliance to the directive as well as Republic Act 4136, or the Land Transportation and Traffic Code.
For the meantime, the local DILG office should perhaps require the LGUs to report anything that they have done since 2020 in compliance with the circular and to explain why they should not be charged for dereliction of duty.
Those who have lifted nary a finger to implement the ban or even create the task force should better find a plausible and believable reason for their inaction.
They cannot justify their dilly-dallying on the issue with their fear of earning the ire of tricycle operators and drivers in their respective times come election time.
Ten years ago, only a few among the public could have cared if the mayors did nothing.
With the three-wheeled vehicles now clogging the roads along with the slow-moving e-trikes, moderate traffic congestion is now being experienced in the capital town of Virac.
Likewise, the growing number of private cars not only in Virac but in other towns means each LGU should now proceed with haste in crafting local transport route plans lest Metro Manila’s traffic gridlock become a daily occurrence here.