This, among all other things, is what's fueling the anger towards the LTFRB. It's as if the members of the LTFRB live in a sort of naive bubble where they say, jeepneys, buses, taxis are all registered with us therefore they must be safe! Nothing could be further from the truth. I've never been personally victimized in these modes of transportation but I definitely do not feel any safer knowing they're registered. I've been swindled by taxi drivers. Buses feel like a roller coaster they move in the highway. Jeepneys stop where they please and are often the causes of traffic especially in Cebu. These, the LTFRB should realize, are all safety risks and hazards. These problems have been around for as long as I can remember and there was no no word of concern from LTFRB on these issues.
I must add, however, that Cebu Taxi drivers are probably the best ones in the Philippines. They don't refuse any fare, they give proper change, they don't drive you around the block several times to get the most out of the ride, and they have a little blue light on the top of their cab as a form of silent distress signal in case something life threatening does indeed happen. Manila, this is how you guys should do taxis. Cebu buses, on the other hand, are a different animal and I'd just depress myself talking about that animal.
I understand the LTFRB's reasons for its decision. Let's call a spade a spade and unregistered Grab and Uber cars are just an app based colorum, which is still illegal. Now, why they chose to go after the safest and most reliable form of colorum is beyond me and I won't even start to try to rationalize it (actually, I will but in a separate post). Uber and Grab need to have play within what is legal if they want to continue operations in the country, which some of their drivers have fulfilled.
On the other side of the same coin, the government needs to step up their game and LTFRB needs to act on the permits of the individual drivers. Uber and Grab both offer a different way to get around the city and one which is very accessible to foreign tourists, who may already have the Uber app on their smartphones.
In my humble opinion, I'd like to forth several things the government must do to win back the favor of the riding public:
- Enforce all traffic laws strictly.
- Reeducate the public about the correct traffic laws and the fact that they're LAWS and not suggestions.
- Make ride sharing legal but in a separate category as other PUVs. Tax them if you need to!
- Modernize mass public transportation. Wouldn't it be cool to pay your jeepney fare through a tap of a card which you can reload at any 7-11? Seriously, why aren't we doing this yet.
- Lessen road widening projects and encourage more mass transportation projects
- Stop renewing the permits of old and dilapidated jeeps, cars (even private ones), and buses
- Put a stop to all illegal forms of public transport (colorum)
I'll stop my list here but that's were I'm at. Did I wish they did these actions in order? Yes, but in any case, I'm still glad they started with something even if I don't agree with it.
To close, I'll just say that if Grab and Uber are indeed considered colorum, then I don't see them actually fading away any time soon. Our traffic enforcers are all too used to this kind of thing. Starting July 26, they'll apprehend any Uber and Grab drivers on the road. This will probably go all the way until August 25. After this, these enforcers will just ask for an amount from the driver so they won't be caught. After a few more weeks, they won't even catch the drivers anymore and we'll be back to where we started.
This, my friends, is why we don't have nice things.
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