Gov. Arthur Yap is challenging the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to arrest him, too, if the agencies start arresting drivers of public utility vehicles (PUVs) who are unable to secure special permits and still continue to operate.
The governor let loose his frustration following the inquiry from The Bohol Tribune about the problem in the local transport sector stemming from reports that some PUV drivers refused to operate out of fear that they might get arrested for their inability to secure a special permit from the LTFRB.
The governor, during the press conference with Bohol media on Friday, June 19, said that he tried to call the officials of the LTO and the LTFRB to find out if there is an operation against PUV drivers, but his calls remained unanswered as of Friday afternoon.
Related to this, the governor said, “I am issuing a call on Monday; if the LTO and LTFRB are going to start interdicting on Monday, they will have to arrest me along with them (the drivers) because I will be out there in the streets.”
The governor wanted to know from the LTO and LTFRB, if there are indeed arrests being made or will be made on drivers operating PUVs without a special permit.
The governor said that he does not have the report yet on jeepney arrests and interdiction the LTO and the LTFRB are doing. “We still don’t have any report on this right now because they have not yet returned our calls” the governor stressed.
“A week ago, kadtong nag istorya mi ni Sec. (Arthur) Tugade klarong-klaro ang gihisgotan nga temporarily pasagdan muna na madugangan ang atong transport conveyances,” the governor added.
Yap bared that on tomorrow, Monday, June 22, he will hold on to the commitment of Tugade to let the PUVs operate even without the special permit.
The governor said, ”I will be out there and I will confront those who (are making the) arrests, because there is a standing order from the secretary to allow (the operation of the PUVs.”
In the same press conference, Yap said it absolutely does not make sense to curtail the operation of public conveyances if the national authorities want to impose social distancing.
The LTFRB is allowing buses to operate based on the so-called hierarchy of the type of transportation allowed during the conduct of general community quarantine (GCQ), This is based on LTFRB’s memorandum no. 2020-017.
Yap said he was told there are enough buses to serve the public’s transportation needs based on franchises.
However, Yap continued, the bus franchises represent “old buses” which are not allowed on the roads as the respective owners of old buses were unable to upgrade the bus engines to modern Euro 5 standards.
The governor said, too, that if the LTO and the LTFRB want the riding public to suffer and be inconvenienced, then “they (LTO and LTFRB) should continue doing it.”
During his speech in the press conference, the governor lambasted the two agencies for being “insensitive to the reality on the ground”.
Yap emphatically said, “On one hand, the national government tells us to open up, (the economy). On the other hand, the LTO and the LTFRB are interdicting our jeepneys. What do they want? Do they want us to open up or shut down?”
The Bohol Tribune asked LTO Tagbilaran registrar Atty. Vicente Gador whether or not there is or there will be an operation against drivers of PUVs without special permit.
Gador told The Bohol Tribune, through a Viber message, “We rather focus on our registration and licensing functions now, than chasing those people who cannot even comply with IATF (Inter Agency Task Force) and LTFRB protocols in as far as land transport (is concerned).
MEMORANDUM
LTFRB’s memorandum 2020-017 took effect last May 1, 2020 and this memorandum stipulates guidelines for public transport for areas under GCQ.To recall, Bohol is under GCQ until June 30, 2020, according to Yap’s Executive Order No. 31.
Under the memorandum stated above, there is a hierarchy of transport service which are preferred to operate in GCQ areas. Certain types of transportation are allowed in order to ensure social distancing which is observed by limiting the number of passengers a certain allowed mode of transport can accommodate.
The same memorandum said that buses are the most preferred mode of transport that will be allowed in an area under GCQ, followed by the tourist buses, modern public utility jeepneys, UV Express, traditional jeepneys which are managed by a cooperative or managed as a fleet and tourist vans.
The LTFRB requires a special permit before these transport service be able to serve the transport needs of the public. According to the LTFRB the PUVs without special permits are considered to be colorum vehicles.
Reports also said that LTO regional director Victor Emmanuel Caindec said that no jeepney in Bohol was issued a special permit by the LTFRB to operate.
In earlier reports, the jeepney operators In Bohol were told to apply for special permit with the LTFRB so the former may be able to operate.