Agencies set to meet to curb colorum vehicles

Members of the Inter-Agency Council on Traffic (I-ACT) are expected to meet with local governments today to discuss ways to curb the proliferation of colorum or illegally operating vehicles in the wake of a bus accident in Occidental Mindoro that left 19 dead.

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the meeting would discuss ways to enforce President Duterte’s directive to arrest all colorum drivers and operators.

“The directive of the President was simple. He said, ‘Stop the wrongdoings of colorum operators. Make it nationwide. Arrest all of them because their operations are illegal.’ He emphasized the job that we will do,” Tugade said in a Malacañang press briefing aired over state-run radio station dzRB last Saturday.

“On Monday, (transportation) Usec. (Thomas) Orbos will meet with the IACT…They will meet to discuss illegal parking and colorum to determine how we can make the crackdown on colorum nationwide,” he added.

I-ACT is composed of the transportation department, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), Philippine National Police – Highway Patrol Group and the Land Transportation Office.

Tugade said the I-ACT would make sure that illegaly operating public utility vehicles would no longer ply the country’s roads.

Meanwhile, the LTFRB has vowed that there will be no sacred cows in its intensified anti-colorum drive, even against “men in uniform.”

LTFRB member Aileen Lizada bared the board has been receiving reports that active and retired uniformed personnel are backing colorum operations, a longtime challenge for the LTFRB.

She urged law enforcers not to support colorum operations as this would go directly against the President’s order to crack down on unregistered and illegally operating public utility vehicles.

Just yesterday, the LTFRB apprehended two colorum vans and one bus. One of the van drivers allegedly grew violent and even threatened LTFRB enforcers by dropping the name of Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa.

Lizada said she knows Dela Rosa would not condone or even allow the use of his name for illegal actions.

Lizada said the names of other generals were also mentioned by apprehended colorum drivers.

Duterte on Friday directed transport officials to implement a nationwide crackdown against unregistered and illegaly operating public utility vehicles, saying the colorum operators are placing the lives of passengers at risk.

He also likened the problems caused by the colorum vehicles to a “cancer.”

“Many Filipinos died too soon because of the illegal racket of these people,” the President said. “When a vehicle is not registered and uninsured, and you park it in terminals, that is considered fraud.”

Duterte issued the order three days after a Dimple Star bus fell into a ravine in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro, killing 19 people and injuring 21 others.

The bus driver reportedly lost control of the brakes while traveling along the national highway. The owner of Dimple Star has surrendered to the police and has vowed to cooperate in the investigation of the incident. –