1 month ago
11
THE city government of General Santos City will stop the registration of franchise applications of all tricycle drivers and operators at the end of this year.
Jose Mariano "Jong" Gonzales, head of the Public Safety Office (PSO), said in an interview that the two-year moratorium given to them to register their public transport vehicles has already ended.
According to Gonzales, the tricycle drivers and operators had asked the city government for a two-year moratorium for them to comply with the requirements indicated in the motorized tricycle-for-hire franchising guidelines of the City Ordinance 21, series of 2023.
"At present, we only have 6,000 existing motorized tricycle units and the city government through the city ordinance has approved another additional 9,000 motorized tricycle units subject for issuance of new franchise and there were 2,000 that already applied," said Gonzales.
"If all will be filled up, we can have a total of 15,000 motorized tricycle units that will operate legally in GenSan," he added.
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Gonzales urged tricycle drivers and operators who have not yet registered their units to grab the opportunity to register.
"The public safety office will no longer accept applications to issue a motorized franchise because the two-year moratorium period has already lapsed since its inception in 2022 and 2023," he said.
Gonzales warned that tricycle units operating in the city without franchise will be penalized accordingly.
He revealed that around 10,000 tricycle units are operating in GenSan without franchise.
He said traffic enforcers are mandated to go after "kolorum" tricycles in the city.
Gonzales stressed that the city government's move was a result of a dismal response from tricycle drivers and operators who ignored calls for them to renew their franchises.
