Angkas Chief Transport advocate George Royeca’s response : The order from the LTFRB to have 10k riders registered for the extension of the pilot came just last Friday, Dec 20, stating that it will be effective merely 2 non-working days after, which is on Dec 23, Monday. We got a message from the office of LTFRB Board Member PMGen Antonio Gardiola Jr. (Ret.) at 11:52 AM on Sunday, Dec 22, asking for a partial list, which was due on the very same day.
As you all already know, we strongly do not agree to the riders cap and the resulting list right from the start. We believe that preparing and submitting that list will make it unfair to the 17k who will not be part of it but have trained hard and have been serving our commuters for the last six months, some even longer.
The LTFRB did not give us enough time to even start evaluating who will be placed on the 10k list. How can 2 non-working days be enough time to conduct an evaluation and trim the bikers down to 10,000 from 27,000? We asked the LTFRB to not take the 17,000 livelihood so lightly. These are 17,000 families that will be displaced. But while we do not agree with the cap that’s been deemed uncompetitive by the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC), we will comply with the list asked by the LTFRB. We pray that the LTFRB will provide the proper context to their statements so that we can prevent the dissemination of misinformation that will only serve to muddle the truth.
