34 colorum vehicles apprehended since Feb

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB)-7 has apprehended a total of 34 colorum vehicles since it started its intensified anticolorum drive in February this year in compliance with the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Of the total number, eight of the vehicles were apprehended in Bohol and 26 were in Cebu.

LTFRB-7 Director Ahmed Cuizon submitted a report to LTFRB Chairman Martin Delgra stating that they conducted a series of operations in Bohol against ‘pasaway’ taxi drivers at the Tagbilaran airport.

They acted on a complaint they received that taxi drivers in Bohol are overcharging their passengers.

Cuizon said two vehicles masqueraded as taxicabs but were actually colorum units.

He explained that at the gate leading towards the road outside of the passenger terminal area, there are ‘taxi drivers’ who offer ‘taxi rides’ to passengers but their vehicles are not actually taxi units but “either private cars devoid of franchises or public utility vehicles of other denominations.”

LTFRB-7 personnel who acted as decoys actually availed of these ‘taxi’ rides.

The drivers charged their passengers a fixed rate of P200 each.

The first decoy asked to be transported to Island City Mall and the second decoy asked to be taken to Tagbilaran Cathedral.

The second driver acted as the dispatcher for the first driver while a third one acted as the dispatcher of the second driver.

A team of anti-colorum enforcers from LTFRB-7 and the PNP-Highway Patrol Group (HPG) apprehended and impounded both vehicles, one a sedan and the other a van, after it travelled one block from the airport.

They also apprehended a taxi driver “engaging in overcharging or contracting” after conducting a total of 10 taxi rides around Tagbilaran City.

There are only 50 authorized taxi units in Tagbilaran City.

Cuizon furnished Special Assistant to the President (SAP) Bong Go a copy of his report during a press conference on Tuesday in Cebu.

In a separate interview, Land Transportation Office (LTO)-7 Regional Director Victor Caindec said his office has deputized elements of the HPG and traffic police to conduct operations against violators of transport rules and regulations.

Caindec said that he also issued a deputization order to 49 DPWH-7 personnel allowing them to apprehend traffic violators while all the port police of Cebu Port Authority are now deputized allowing them to apprehend traffic violators inside the port.