City councilor Jonas Cacho bared that based on the meeting of the Committee on Public Utilities on Jan. 19, 2023, Land Transportation Office (LTO) Tagbilaran chief Yvonne Auza told the panel that tricab owners are welcome to register their vehicles as long as the requirements are in order.
Cacho said there is no truth to information floating that the LTO doesn’t allow the registration of tricabs. He emphasized that whoever is doing the floating of the information is telling wrong information to the public.
Tricab operators need a new franchise in order to be registered as a public utility vehicle before the LTO, Cacho explained.
He also explained the process flow of the renewal of the franchise of tricabs.
Cacho said that the processing of the franchise starts with the Business Permits and Licensing Office (BPLO).
During the committee hearing BPLO chief Thea Parras said that the initial processing of the franchise takes 2 to 3 weeks, according to Cacho.
“Miingon siya [Parras], 2 to 3 weeks daw, ang releasing. Usahay 4 weeks pa,” Cacho quoted the BPLO chief who was in the meeting of the panel on Jan. 20. 2022.
Once the BPLO submits the franchise application to the city council, generally it takes a week for the full approval to happen from the city council, Cacho explained.
He added that if he will receive the application on a Friday, the franchise will be tackled at the regular session on the next Friday.
After the franchise application is processed at the BPLO level, the application will be forwarded to the Sangguniang Panglungsod (SP) secretary. The SP secretary will refer the application to Cacho’s panel.
The committee will then have a meeting to produce a committee report, Cacho said.
Once there is a committee report, a resolution will be forged for the approval of all SP members during the regular session.
The approved resolution will then be submitted to the vice mayor for signature and then the franchise application will be returned to the BPLO.
The alderman also said that once a franchise application arrives from the BPLO, he immediately works on it together with his colleagues at the SP, and as soon as possible, the process gets underway.
Moreover, Cacho clarified that he never denied any franchise application that lands on his desk.
He is willing to resign as a councilor if ever somebody can prove that he has denied the renewal of franchise of any tricycle or tricab in the city.
“Moundang ko pagkakonsehal. Akong challenge ni nga mo resign ko pagkakonsehal ug naay maka pamatuod nga aduna koy gi-disapprove nga franchise renewal during my time as [committee chair of the Committee on Public Utilities],” Cacho told The Bohol Tribune.
LTO allows tricab registration says Cacho
