The Land Transportation Office (LTO) central office is pressuring LTO-Dumaguete district office chief Roland Ramos to enforce a national law and a memorandum circular of the Department of Interior & Local Government banning tricycles along the national highway.
Ramos said his proposal during the September 30, 2011 meeting with the Traffic Management Council would be to divide the city into five zones, with the commercial district as zone one, but this was held in abeyance.
It was only last week when his attention was called by the national office to inform him that the LTO central office is already acting on the petition of two groups of utility vehicles for hire, the JODAI and BERODA, not to allow the pedicabs to traverse the national highway.
While he respects the mindset and stand of the mayor, Ramos said he has no choice but to follow orders from his superiors in Manila.
It is possible that patrol officers from the LTO central office and from Region 7 will be coming to Dumaguete to conduct a joint operation against tricycles or “pedicabs” that are plying the national roads within the city, namely, Real and Perdices streets.
Ramos believes there is no clash between the stand of the mayor and in the enforcement of the national law, because when these tricycles were issued franchises, one prohibition is that they should not traverse along the national highways. (PNA/JFP/Juancho Gallarde)
