Zambo City mulls allowing trikes on national highways

ZAMBOANGA CITY – The city government is planning to allow tricycles to pass on national highways for “humanitarian consideration.”

City Councilor Elbert Atilano Sr., the chair of the City Council’s Committee on Transportation, said tricycle operators and drivers have earlier complained of losing their livelihood if they are banned from plying the national highways.

Atilano pointed out that city and barangay roads are interconnected to the national highways.

Atilano’s pronouncement appears to defy the directive of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) mandating local governments to implement the ban on tricycles, pedicabs, and similar transport vehicles, on national highways.

However, the councilor clarified that the proposal entails the establishment of a yellow lane exclusively assigned for the three-wheeled vehicles to separate them from four-wheeled cars.

Atilano said the plan is also subject to the approval of Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar, who has been briefed with the proposal.

Weighing on the legality of allowing tricycles on national roads, Atilano pointed to a city ordinance that designated an exclusive lane for four-wheel vehicles weighing at least four tons as long as they observe the 40-kilometer per hour speed limit. Tricycles, he said, may use this lane instead, as has been suggested by the City Legal Office.

“Our City Legal Office has used this ordinance as a basis because the mayor does not want the tricycle drivers to lose their livelihood. We follow the law but we also consider humanitarian reason,” Atilano said. (PNA)