Philstar.com
December 8, 2024 | 2:33pm
MANILA, Philippines — Motorcycle taxis (MTs) plying the streets of Central Luzon and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) are legal and operating in accordance with several memoranda issued by government regulators and the Motorcycle Taxi Technical Working Group (MC TWG), the team mandated by Congress to oversee the two-wheeled taxis, while lawmakers are in the process of passing the legislation to regulate their operation.
As early as May this year, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) chair Atty. Teofilo Guadiz III has announced that the regulator will allot 8,000 slots to four accredited MTs — Para Xpress, Maxim, Dingdong and GrabBike — to allow them to operate outside the National Capital Region, a move that policymakers hailed as healthy for competition and beneficial to commuters.
In a joint circular signed by Guadiz and Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Atty. Vigor Mendoza II on October 11, 2024, the four MT companies were given the authority to operate in Region III (Central Luzon) and Region IV-A (Calabarzon), with an initial number of allocated rider cap of 2,000 each “subject to adjustment or increase upon request by the participants with proof of public necessity.”
The allocation of each MT company includes the riders in NCR that have already been onboarded. The circular further states that in Metro Manila, MT firms “are allowed to retain their riders provided it does not exceed 500 riders each.”
The MC TWG directed the MT companies to submit a master list of its onboarded riders for “purposes of assignment of a rider code/number” and stressed that “only those onboarded riders with corresponding rider code/number shall be allowed to operate.”
Any activation, deactivation or reactivation shall be submitted to the MC TWG for its approval, the memorandum stated.
On November 25, 2024, Guadiz affirmed that the new MT slots were for Central Luzon and Calabarzon only. The MTs in Metro Manila has remained steady at 45,000 since three years ago.
Under current laws, MTs are prohibited from operating in the country. In 2019, however, Congress paved the way for the introduction of Mts under a pilot study program to determine if these are safe for public transport.
An LTFRB TWG study, “Motorcycle Taxis in the Philippines: A Comprehensive Analysis for Permanent Integration,” completed early this year and submitted to Congress revealed that MTs service an estimated 370,000 commuters daily nationwide.
The study concluded that MTs “have the potential to alleviate traffic congestion by reducing the number of vehicles on the road, thus improving traffic flow” and that establishing MTs “as a permanent mode in the country’s transportation system is both feasible and advantageous.”
In July, the House of Representatives passed House Bill No. 10424, which allows the operation of motorcycles as common carriers for the transportation of passengers and goods, including parcels and mail. The Senate has yet to pass its version of the measure.
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