Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista has signed Ordinance No. 2768, mandating the grant of personal accident insurance for tricycle drivers and passengers.
According to Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, presiding officer of the 37-member city council, the ordinance is the product of the city’s concern for tricycle drivers, since numerous families in the city depend on tricycles for livelihood and also as a practical mode of transportation.
“Tricycles are used for short-distance travels, but we cannot disregard the fact that these vehicles get into accidents as well,” she said.
“The ordinary people are the ones who ride a tricycle. What would happen to them once they encounter a road mishap? Now that we have an ordinance for this, the city government can help fund the insurance for our tricycle drivers including their passengers,” Belmonte added.
If a tricycle driver or a passenger gets into an accident, the said insurance shall provide a minimum of P7,500 to P50,000 to the victims depending on the severity of the damage acquired such as death, disablement, limb amputations, loss of sight, hearing, and speech; including the loss of thumb or the index finger.
Under the ordinance, the city government shall subsidize 50 percent of the total amount of the insurance program for its first-year implementation, while the other 50 percent would be shouldered by the tricycle operators.