Transport officials meet today on removal of ‘colorum’ vehicles

Transportation authorities are expected to craft a comprehensive strategy to eliminate “colorum” vehicles from the country’s roads in a meeting today, Monday, March 26.

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the Inter-Agency Council on Traffic (IACT) will discuss how to implement President Duterte’s latest directive for a nationwide crackdown on colorum or unregistered public transportation vehicles.

The meeting will be attended by officials of the IACT members,

including the Department of Transportation (DOTr), Philippine National Police-High Patrol Group (PNP-HPG), Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Land Transportation Office (LTO), Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), and concerned local government units.

“The President’s order is simple. He said, ‘Put a stop to the nonsense of colorum vehicles. Make it nationwide, arrest them all because they are illegal.’ The DOTr is committed to carry out its duty following the President’s statement outlining the tasks to be done,” Tugade said in a government radio program hosted by Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar last Saturday.

“There will be a meeting on how to conduct a nationwide campaign against colorum vehicles. The agenda of the meeting is how to pursue, how to scour, how to stop them from operating in our roads,” he added.

The President recently ordered the arrest of drivers and operators of colorum public utility vehicles after visiting the site of a deadly bus crash in Occidental Mindoro in which 19 people were killed.

He vowed to throw the book at colorum operators and drivers, including possible charges of fraud.

Secretary Tugade said the ill-fated crash of the Dimple Star bus in Occidental Mindoro highlights the need to pursue the government’s modernization program of public utility vehicles to ensure commuter safety.

He said that a government inspection of the Dimple Star bus fleet showed other vehicles were also in a dismal state.

“How many more will die or be hurt for us to believe we really need the modernization of our transportation?” Tugade asked. “Let’s work together and do this. We can’t do this alone, we need your help.”

The modernization program aims to replace dilapidated and smoke-belching vehicles with safer and modern environment friendly PUVs on the roads.