A COMMUTER rights group on Sunday backed Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte’s opposition to the proposed ban on for-hire tricycles being used as school shuttles.
Ariel Inton, founder of the Lawyers for Commuters Safety and Protection, stressed there is no law prohibiting students from using tricycles as school service.
“Let’s not make a simple issue complicated. Students are not prohibited to ride a tricycle in going to and from the school. There is no such law banning it,” he said.
Considered illegal are overloading, colorum and out-of-line tricycles and other public utility vehicles, he added.
Belmonte earlier expressed opposition to the suggestion of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (to ban the use of the tricycles as school bus.)
If the for-hire tricycle is not colorum, overloading or out-of-line, such mode of transportation should still be allowed to serve as school shuttle service, she said.
Inton echoed Belmonte’s stance that tricycles are still safe to use and are more practical.
Tricycles are being patronized mostly by public school students from poor families who neither have private cars nor the financial capability to pay for more expensive school bus fees, Inton said.
“When a public motorized tricycle is carrying students, does it mean it is already a school service? he asked.
Belmonte earlier said the LTFRB should have first coordinated to the local government units its operations against tricycles ferrying students to and from the schools.