When you are caught lying at a Senate hearing

LAST week, we happened to be at the

Senate wearing our hat as convenor of the advocacy group Coalition for Filipino Commuters.

This organization was created by a group of public utility vehicle passengers who have had enough of the shoddy treatment received from what should generally be properly delivered service to the public.

I will talk about this group in another piece in the future. But for now, I’d like to point out the folly of lying to senators at a public hearing.

The event was about the pending Motorcycle Taxi bill that was on its way to being passed as a law to legally allow twowheeled vehicles as public conveyances.

At the hearing were the three major app hailing rider groups MoveIt, JoyRide, and Angkas who were the subject of a pilot project for motorcycle (MC) taxis.

Present were two other groups presently barred from providing MC taxi services but allowed delivery services, Grab and Maxim.

Sen, Raffy Tulfo was asking about the operations of these MC taxi companies and asked both Grab and Maxim if they were offering taxi services to the riding public.

Both said no as they do not have permits from the MC taxi technical working group of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB).

Tulfo then showed a news article saying that Maxim was operating as a colorum MC taxi service of which Maxim President Andres Morales Jr. immediately denied.

In a stuttering manner, Morales said they used to offer the services but halted it after being warned by the technical working group that they were illegally offering MC taxi services.

During the course of the discussion, Riders Sentro representative John Jay Chan testified at that very moment that Maxim’s mobile app shows they were still offering passenger service.

Other advocacy groups in the hearing then began their own search of Maxim and found this to be true, including numerous advertising and promotion activities on social media.

Caught lying, Morales tried to wiggle out of the situation, but with a series of posts found, now from the staff of the senators at the hearing, which included Sen Grace Poe, chairman of the Senate public services committee, Sen. Jose Victor Ejercito and Sen. Nancy Binay, confirmed the accusation.

What bothers me and other commuter advocacy personalities in the hearing was that the Land Transportation Office, LTFRB and the other government agencies did not even bother to check if what Maxim was saying was true.

The information had to be brought up by private sector representatives in the hearing when clearly it was the responsibility of these government agencies to make sure that all players in the MC taxi service are legitimate.

When asked by Tulfo why Maxim could operate without their knowledge (when in fact it had already been previously warned and sanctioned and had a pending application) the LTFRB representative could only say, “we will investigate this.”

For such a controversial issue that has been running for the last five years, I cannot understand why government transport agencies are still clueless when these types of violations happen.

Maybe the regulatory function of MC taxis should not be in the hands of the LTFRB if they are this inept.

As for Maxim, they have allegedly shutdown their MC taxi service option right before the hearing ended, but the LTFRB did not deem it necessary to sanction or even cancel the application of the company.