Urgent help needed by Pier 1 passengers

How many of you have experienced this in Pier 1, specifically at a corner near a convenience store and across a Cebu City Police Station?

You arrived at Cebu City Port’s Pier 1. From there, you walk from the gate to where you can get a taxi to your next destination.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there used to be an orderly system where taxis were made to queue and proceed to the designated taxi-waiting area reserved for passengers. There seemed, then, to have been uniformed guards/police helping to manage the taxis and the passengers.

However, since the queue was long in this orderly taxi-waiting area, passengers in a hurry to get to their next designation walked a little further, to another taxi-waiting area near a convenient store immediately across a Cebu City Police Station.

There, one observes a free-for-all scenario where there is a rush to be the first to get into the next available taxi. No guard or policeman around. But, aside from the passengers and the taxis, so many other unidentified men are present.

These unidentified men hail a taxi for passengers, open, then block the door of the taxi and ask for a tip for hailing the taxi that passengers did not ask for since passengers can do this themselves, for free, without paying anyone.

If the passenger does not pay the tip, the passenger cannot get inside the taxi because the unidentified man is now blocking the taxi door. The taxi driver also cannot leave because his taxi door is being blocked by that unidentified man insisting on payment/tip from the passenger!

Imagine if this happened to passengers at nighttime. The passengers are at the mercy of these unidentified men insistent on being paid for their hailing service that the passengers did not ask them to do!

Intimidated and fearful for their safety and eager to get a ride to their next destination, you can imagine how many passengers paid the tip forced on them by these unidentified men!

If the passenger refuses, the unidentified men could force the passenger to get out of the queue.

If the next passenger is willing to pay the tip, the unknown men will unblock the taxi door to allow the next passenger to enter the taxi.

Passengers who refuse to pay may be forced to walk farther to get a taxi at great risk of encountering the same system where other unknown men may be waiting to be paid for hailing a taxi or of encountering other bad elements lurking, waiting for their next victim in the dark places away from Pier 1.

How many continue to be victimized by this system to be forced to pay tips by unknown men who block taxi doors for drivers and passengers at Pier 1?

This practice rampant before COVID-19 and still reported until this day needs urgent action from authorities, especially the policemen in the nearby police station in Pier 1!

Calling Cebu City Police Office Chief Colonel Ireneo Dalogdog, please immediately respond to this plea for help from Pier 1 passengers.

Calling on Mayor Mike Rama please? Like Singapore, where security, safety and order are widely observed to protect their residents and local/foreign visitors, can Mayor Mike immediately coordinate with the Cebu City Police Office, city tourism team, barangay officials, among others, to implement a working/orderly system to ensure the safety, protection and security of local and foreign passengers who simply want to get a taxi (or public transport) for their next destination at Pier 1?

With everyone’s cooperation and coordination, surely setting up this urgently-needed orderly and safe Pier 1 taxi-waiting system for passengers is immediately doable?

“Calling Cebu City Police Office Chief Colonel Ireneo Dalogdog, please immediately respond to this plea for help from Pier 1 passengers.”