NCCSP, TRANSPORT GROUPS UP IN ARMS AGAINST COLORUM VEHICLES

 DAGUPAN CITY – The National Center for Commuters Safety and Protection (NCCSP) and various transport groups in the city are supporting the city’s campaign against colorum vehicles that are entering the city.

A utulity vehicle (UV) Express van bound for Dagupan
passes through a checkpoint in Kennon Road. Photo
Credit: Sun Star

They voiced their support in a meeting facilitated by the Public Order and Safety Office (POSO) and the Committee on Laws, Ordinances and Judiciary and the Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities of the Sangguniang Panlungsod chaired by City Councilors Jose Netu Tamayo and Alvin Coquia, respectively, on May 17 at the city museum.

The meeting tackled the reported rise of colorum vehicles now plying the city streets.

POSO chief retired SPO4 Carlito Ocampo reported that only last week his office apprehended 50 suspected colorum vans that have no official or designated terminals in the city.

NCCSP president Elvira Medina deplored the operations of colorum vehicles as they operate illegally to the detriment of the riding public who are sometime exposed to holdups and rape, on top of their unsecured rights during accidents and other offenses such as driving with an expired driver’s license, tampered license plate, out of line or wrong route, among others.

Mayor Belen T. Fernandez, who was present in that meeting, was against the operation of colorum vehicles in the city which was prevalent even in the early years of her administration, vowing to secure the safety of all commuters in the city against colorum vehicles.

The safety of the commuters and the people in the streets are the thrusts of the Fernandez administration. She brought back the city’s traffic lights which had been inoperative for the last several years and strictly implemented the city’s existing traffic rules and regulations to cope with the needs of the times.

A colorum vehicle is a privately-owned motor vehicle which operates as a public utility vehicle without proper authority from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB).

But a public utility vehicle can also commit a “colorum violation” if it operates “outside  its approved route or area without prior permit from the LTFRB” or if it operates differently from its “authorized denomination”, or when it continues to operate even when its certificate of public convenience (CPC) is suspended or cancelled and the order of suspension or cancellation is executor; when its CPC is expired and continues to operate without a pending application for extension of validity “timely filed” before the LTFB.

Accordingly, there are currently 10 classifications of land transportation services that should apply for franchise at the LTFRB: public utility bus, mini bus, public utility jeep, taxi, UV express, tourist transport, shuttle transport, fil cab, school transport, and truck for hire.

For this, Tamayo and Coquia vowed to pass an ordinance to protect the commuters against colorum vehicles and to consider a new route for PUVs to the new growth areas identified under the city’s newly approved Comprehensive Land Use Plan. (Joseph C. Bacani/CIO/May 18, 2017)