Regulating habal-habal not legally feasible

Pending before the Cebu City Council is a proposed ordinance authored by Councilor Pastor Alcover Jr. that seeks to regulate the operation of motorcycles-for-hire (habal-habal) in the city.

I believe in its noble intention, but I doubt if it can withstand the test of legality.

Section 7 of RA 4136, otherwise known as the Land Transportation and Traffic Code, explicitly prohibits “private motorcycles (registered as such by the LTO) to be sued for hire under any circumstances or to be used to solicit, accept or transport passengers for pay.”

While local government units, including the City of Cebu, are given vast regulatory powers under the Local Government Code of 1991 over the citizens’ use of property, practice of profession, or operation of business, regulating the operation of habal-habal is beyond the scope of such powers.

In 1992 the DILG issued an opinion stating that as to the delegation of regulatory powers from the DOTC to cities and municipalities, devolution only extends to the regulation of the operation of tricycles and the granting of franchises for the operation thereof within their respective jurisdictions.

Subsequently, the DOTC released a separate opinion concurring that the functions of the offices of the LTFRB which are to be devolved are limited to the regulation and franchising of tricycles for hire and do not cover the other modes of public land transportation service.

Seeing the necessity of habal-habal in the countryside as an alternative mode of transport, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Cebu in 2005 passed a resolution (sponsored by then SP member Agnes A. Magpale) asking Congress to amend specific provisions of the Land Transportation Code to pave the way for local government units to legitimize its operation. But until now such plea remains barking at the moon.

Be that as it may, the City Council should think twice about the proposal to regulate the operation of habal-habal. The SC in one case ruled that local legislative bodies are noted authorized to enact any ordinance which directly contravenes any statute of the Constitution. To give imprimatur to a local measure like authorizing the operation of the outlawed habal-habal is tantamount to tolerating the open violation of an existing law.

Basiliso M. Sungcad Jr.

Poblacion, Ronda, Cebu