Cops who are found to be involved in colorum or unregistered vehicles operations or have allowed these to continue will undergo a lifestyle check, the Philippine National Police said.
PNP chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil said he has directed the Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG) to intensify monitoring of cops’ activities as he vowed zero tolerance for police officers involved in illegal operations.
“If there are really cases like that, we have IMEG to check the lifestyle of the police,” Marbil said during Wednesday’s signing of the memorandum of agreement among the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Transportation and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority for the creation of a task force against colorum public utility vehicles.
Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. said they are also checking the involvement of other officials in colorum operations.
He, however, declined to give more details.
Abalos said that during the period of March 12 to April 15, the composite team of MMDA and the DILG registered 56 colorum apprehensions; 44 out-of-line apprehensions; 100 colorum units impounded; four terminals operated; and three persons arrested.
“This is an effective collaboration with the DILG, MMDA, DOTr, and the PNP. Given the number of apprehensions for just a period of one month, we can probably yield more than 1,000 colorum vehicle apprehensions for a year,” Abalos said.
He warned colorum drivers and operators of fines ranging from P6,000 to P1 million, depending on the vehicle.
Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said the Joint Task Force is one of the solutions to help legitimate operators and drivers supporting the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).
“Through this partnership, we can help those who are operating legally who claim to lose 35 percent of their revenues due to colorum vehicles,” Bautista said.
The transportation secretary also noted the crackdown of colorum vehicles will help ease the traffic in Metro Manila roads.
“If we can decrease 90 percent of colorum operations, this is of big help to the legitimate transport operators and a huge relief to the usual traffic flow,” he said.