The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is reiterating its call to all city and municipal mayors to ban pedicabs and tricycles along national highways, whether in Metro Manila or in the provinces.
“For safety reasons, no tricycle or pedicab should operate on national highways utilized by four-wheel vehicles greater than four tons and where normal speed exceeds 40 kilometers per hour,” says DILG OIC-Secretary Eduardo M. Año.
Año says that while the government recognizes that tricycle and pedicab operations provide livelihood and income to Filipinos, both in the urban center and rural areas, “allowing them on main thoroughfares poses hazards to other motor vehicles, the riding public, and even to the drivers themselves.”
“The regulation of tricycles and pedicabs on national highways is, therefore, to the best interest of everyone,” he says.
He explains that said vehicles may only be allowed by concerned sangguniang panlungsod or sangguniang bayan to traverse main highways if there is no other alternative route.
The DILG OIC reiterated the Department’s directive after receiving reports from its field offices regarding the unregulated operation of tricycles and pedicabs along main thoroughfares which pose serious hazards to the passengers, drivers, and other vehicles.
Año says that under the Local Government Code, city and municipal mayors, through their respective sanggunians, are authorized to regulate the operation of tricycles within their territorial jurisdiction, subject to the guidelines prescribed by the Department of Transportation.
He also urges local authorities to strictly adhere to the standards and guidelines provided by Memorandum Circular 2007-01, which contains the basic considerations in the preparation of city or municipal tricycle and pedicab franchise and regulatory ordinance or code.
Said guidelines include banning of tricycle and pedicab operations along national highways; prohibiting said vehicles to carry more passengers and goods than what they are designed for, or more than what is authorized in the franchise, among others. —DILGCO
