THE Motorcycle Rights Organization (MRO) has asked the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) for an update on long-running investigations into alleged violations in the motorcycle taxi industry.
In a letter dated Sept. 6, MRO Chairman Jobert “Yob” Bolaños said he wanted to know what happened to regulatory issues repeatedly raised before the government, particularly those involving rider caps, unauthorized onboarding and accreditation conditions.
Bolaños said the group was seeking an accounting of what actions the LTFRB had taken and whether any accountability followed from violations that had been reported and documented.
“We are asking the LTFRB to enforce the rules it established, act on violations that have already been documented and raised before government, and provide the affected riders and stakeholders with a clear accounting of what has actually been done,” Bolaños said.
He said the concerns had been taken over the years through government hearings, formal submissions, consultations and technical discussions.
The stakeholders had repeatedly been assured that reported violations would be investigated and sanctions imposed when violations were established, Bolanos said.
“That is why we are now asking a very simple question: What has happened since then?” he said.
The group was not seeking penalties against any operator without due process, he said. Instead, it urged the LTFRB to complete its regulatory processes and make their results public.
“If a violation has been established, the appropriate sanction should follow. If no violation has been established, the public deserves to know that as well. If an investigation remains pending, the public deserves to know its status and the reason for the delay,” Bolaños said.
MRO is also calling for equal enforcement of motorcycle taxi regulations, regardless of the size, influence or market position of an operator.
“A regulatory framework cannot be credible if compliance is expected from smaller participants while larger participants are allowed to treat regulatory limitations as negotiable,” Bolaños said.
The organization has asked the LTFRB to provide the status of investigations into alleged violations, determine whether rider-cap and onboarding violations had been established, account for sanctions already imposed, and reconcile reported rider numbers with authorized numbers.
MRO also raised concerns about riders who may have been “onboarded” or recruited outside the authorized regulatory framework.
The group said some riders accepted onboarding in good faith because they reasonably believed that participation allowed by an established operator was properly authorized.
“If riders were onboarded beyond authorized limits, or were otherwise placed into the system in violation of the rules, those riders should not be treated as the architects of the regulatory problem,” Bolaños said.
“Please do not give us another promise that action will be taken. Give us the action, the findings, and the accountability that the situation now requires,” he said.
