The Traffic Management Office of Dumaguete City has suspended its clampdown on “erring” tricycle drivers who have not complied with permits and other requirements due to the volume of applications for a certification in their office.
TMO head Gilbert Ablong said late Wednesday that after the one-day clampdown, the TMO office had to suspend the enforcement because the administrative section could not anymore cope with the volume of applications for traffic certification as a result of the operation.
Ablong, however, enjoined all drivers not to wait for traffic personnel to catch them while plying the city streets without a mayors permits and be issued citation tickets.
Hundreds of drivers trooped to the Traffic Management Office to ask for a certification as a requirement for the issuance of a police clearance and eventually a mayor’s permit to ply the city streets, following an initial clampdown on Tuesday of drivers without the necessary permits.
Ablong explained the selective enforcement had to be conducted because records of the permit section showed, a lot of motorcabs for hire in the city have no motorized tricycle operators permits or MTOPs, and that a lot of drivers don’t have a mayor’s permits.
They can come to the office voluntarily before it will order a resumption of the operation.
He explained one of the reasons why some operators and drivers had failed to comply with the requirements is due to investigations conducted by the city regarding the multiple ownership of franchises by a few operators, especially those holding questionable special powers of attorney.
Now that the problem is addressed, Ablong is confident of a good turnout of drivers and operators who will voluntarily comply with all the requirements for their own good.
Ablong considered the report of the permit section a blessing in disguise because if not, they would not have known, many tricycles are operating illegally.
TMO operations chief Danny Atillo also expressed the need for “extra” drivers to register and get mayors permits to avoid complications later on. Extra drivers are usually assigned in the evening and that they also have to undergo the same seminars with that of regular drivers.
He said tricycle drivers in Dumaguete has tripled in numbers to include driver-operators, and assigned drivers. (Juancho Gallarde/PNA)
