Chief Assistant Secretary Atty. Vigor D. Mendoza II of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) has ordered its Law Enforcement Service to assign its personnel to malls and usual places of convergence around Metro Manila and other urban areas to crackdown colorum PUVs and choosy taxi drivers that refuse passengers.
Called the Oplan PASAWAY, Mendoza cited his own experience and complaints from other passengers for the creation of the program. It is said that there’s always an increase in complaints against taxi drivers who refuse passengers during the holiday season.
“Marami sa mga taxi drivers ang nangongontrata at talagang hindi nagpapasakay kung hindi papayag sa gusto nilang presyuhan. Mahigpit pong ipinagbabawal ito dahil violation ito ng kanilang prangkisa,” Mendoza said.
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Mendoza added that, due to the spike in passengers during the Christmas season, there’s also an increase in colorum PUVs around.
His order to LTO’s Law Enforcement Service states that there should be enough LTO enforcers on duty even after office hours, especially at night when there’s a surge in passengers.
Mendoza said that the mere presence of uniformed LTO enforcers should be enough to push erring taxi drivers to behave properly and colorum PUV drivers to be discouraged from traveling illegal routes.
The LTO exec said that they will also coordinate the the PNP-HPG and mall security managers to augment their enforcers for the program.
Mendoza also appealed to the public to immediately report to LTO enforcers, mall guards, and policemen in the area if they’ve been a victim of erring taxi drivers.