Commuter group LCSP Questions Senator Pimentel’s Endorsement of JoyRide
Atty. Trixie Cruz-Angeles showed a letter written by Senator Pimentel to Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Arthur Tugade last September 2, endorsing Joyride as a participant in the initial motorcycle taxi test run that was ongoing at the time.
Atty. Angeles notes that Joyride’s effort to use Senator Pimentel as a go-between to the Department of Transportation, particularly to the secretary himself, exposes the senator to a violation of Section 3(e) of Republic Act No. 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Atty. Ariel Inton of the Lawyers for Commuter Safety and Protection stressed that legislators have no business interceding for a private party that has an application with a government entity.
\Both Atty. Inton and Atty. Raymond Fortun called out some irregularities that both the DOTr and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) were guilty of. “First of all, they came up with a new Department Order dated December 19, 2019, constituting a new Technical Working Group or TWG composed only of representatives from government agencies. The original civil society stakeholders were effectively eased out,” Fortun revealed.
According to Fortun, the new Department Order constituted the new TWG and appointed Mr. Gardiola as the chairman. “But, the funny thing about it is that it was not only printed using an LTFRB letterhead (and not a DOTr letterhead), it was signed by Mr. Gardiola himself as the new chairman of the TWG and LTO Asec. Galvante,” Fortun shared.
According to Fortun, the new Department Order constituted the new TWG and appointed Mr. Gardiola as the chairman. “But, the funny thing about it is that it was not only printed using an LTFRB letterhead (and not a DOTr letterhead), it was signed by Mr. Gardiola himself as the new chairman of the TWG and LTO Asec. Galvante,” Fortun shared.
“This means that Mr. Gardiola appointed himself as the TWG chairman in his capacity as the TWG chairman,” Fortun added.
Fortun also revealed that although the new Department Order that included the constitution of the TWG was signed on December 19, the new TWG has already been meeting since November 20th, without involving the original members.
Lawyers for Commuter Safety and Protection are questioning DOTr, LTFRB, and the new TWG that they should explain to the public the reason for the creation of the new TWG which is composed of DOTr agencies, and the removal of the original Civil Society Group members. Also, the extension of the motorcycle taxi pilot run, and why Joyride insists that there needs to be another player in the test run so that data will come from two different sources even though their business model is almost an exact replica of the Angkas business model.
Lawyers for Commuter Safety and Protection are questioning DOTr, LTFRB, and the new TWG that they should explain to the public the reason for the creation of the new TWG which is composed of DOTr agencies, and the removal of the original Civil Society Group members. Also, the extension of the motorcycle taxi pilot run, and why Joyride insists that there needs to be another player in the test run so that data will come from two different sources even though their business model is almost an exact replica of the Angkas business model.
“The DOTr and the LTFRB were all willing to do all these irregularities just so they can accommodate two new players and cut down the competitiveness of the pioneer player,” Inton noted. “This begs the question, why is the DOTr seemingly favoring the two new players while putting undue pressure on Angkas? What are the reasons?” Atty. Fortun added
The extension of the program came after the pilot run involving motorcycle taxi pioneer Angkas ended last December 26, 2019.
In the Extended Pilot Implementation new players JoyRide, and Move are added starting last December 23, 2019 will last until March 23, 2020, with an allotted cap of 30,000 riders spread evenly that includes Angkas and an additional 3,000 bikers for Metro Cebu operations.
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