House panel chief vows to pass motor taxi bill

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representative will pass a measure legalizing and regulating motorcycle ride-hailing services in the country before the election season.

House transportation committee chairman Edgar Mary Sarmiento made this commitment, saying the chamber has enough time to approve the motor taxi bill before Congress adjourns sessions next month for the election period.

“We still have nine session days before adjournment on Feb. 5. Once we pass this on third reading, we can transmit it immediately to the Senate. And if our versions have no difference, we can immediately send it to the President for his signature,” he said during the weekly Kapihan sa Manila Bay virtual forum.

The Samar congressman added that the consolidated version of 18 bills, which seek to amend Republic Act 4136 (Land Transportation and Traffic Code) to make motorcycle taxi services a public transport option, has been approved by the House plenary on second reading.

“It’s now with the committee on appropriations because it has budgetary requirements. It was supposed to be tackled this week, but the sessions were suspended due to the COVID-19 surge,” he said.

Sarmiento vowed that the measure would not allow a monopoly.

The lawmaker recently called on the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to retain ride-hailing giant Grab and its partner Move It in its extended motorcycle taxi pilot study.

In the same forum, Citimovers Motor Taxi appealed to the DOTr to also reconsider its decision to exclude them from the pilot test.

“They promised to include us after six months. But after we complied with all the requirements, we were still not included in their several pilot runs,” Citimovers representative Charles Punzalan said.

“We have 10,000 members nationwide so we don’t know why they did not include us in the pilot testing. Why is their study limited to only three companies when they can also get needed data from us?” Punzalan stressed.

Sarmiento said he would ask the DOTr why Citimovers was not included in the pilot test.