NGO wants trike passengers insured

The non-government organization called Lawyers for Commuters' Safety and Protection urges local government units to mandate tricycle owners and operators in the region to acquire personal passenger insurance.

Lawyer Ariel Inton, Jr., LCSP founder and a former LTFRB member, said there are several plying tricycles nowadays as more passengers take this ride.

However, none of them are protected if in case the vehicle figures in a crash.

“(We are) calling on local government units to mandate that a personal passenger insurance be required from tricycle owners for the benefit of passengers,” he said in an interview with reporters.

He said this recommendation has been one of their advocacies they are pushing to further protect tricycle passengers.

Inton said LGUs can include the personal passenger insurance as one of the requirements before granting franchise to tricycle owners and operators.

It is up to the local officials to set the insurance rate for injuries and deaths.

To further establish this policy, he said the city or municipal council may draft an ordinance that will impose passenger insurance as a requirement.

Inton further said he will communicate this concern to the secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government through a letter.

He explained that LGUs supervise tricycles as these are not regulated by LTFRB.

LTFRB-Region 7 Director Ahmed Cuizon said the local office shares the same advocacy of Inton.

However, they cannot compel tricycle owners or operations to acquire passenger insurance saying there is a need to include this requirement through the LGU-issued franchise since some of the tricycle owners and operators are very poor and can hardly extend assistance to involved passengers.

Cuizon said he will also echo this call to the traffic enforcement arm of the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu.

He said he is part of the board of the Cebu City Transportation Office, Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue, and the Lapu-Lapu City Traffic Management System.

“I might as well bring this up in a meeting to the three bodies where I am a member of,” he said.

B. Miasco/MBG