Commuters urged to sue abusive cabbies

CEBU, Philippines - After fulfilling their devotion to the Santo Niño last January 16, Ann (real name withheld, on subject’s request), 26, together with her balikbayan relatives hailed a taxicab for Cebu Business Park where they planned to have their dinner.

En route to CBP, her aunt opted to go directly to their hotel. This prompted them to decide to change their destination, but still passing by the mall to drop their uncle who was planning to have his dinner in one of the mall’s restaurants.

On informing the driver of their decision, he allegedly rudely refused to bring them to their new destination and instead stopped and dropped them in a secluded place, unfamiliar to any of the passengers as they were merely visiting Cebu for the annual Sinulog pilgrimage.

Fearing the agitated driver, Ann said that she and her relatives decided to get off the taxi and hailed another with a driver who’s willing to bring them to their intended destinations. Worst, they had to pay the driver P62.50 for bringing them to a place where they had to again wait for another taxi under the rain.

When sought for comment, Land Transportation Office assistant regional director Edgar Catarongan said that the case of Ann is but one of the few cases being handled by the adjudication board of the LTO pertaining to abuses committed by public utility vehicles.

When faced with a similar situation, Catarongan encourages the commuters to be aware of their rights, and to file a complaint at the LTO should they continue to be treated unfairly. He said that the LTO can be reached through hotline (032-256-3766 or 254-3122) or to his direct line at 418-4166.

He said that as public servants, declared by his nameplate as his designation, they are obliged to act on the complaint and resolve the case 15 days after it was filed.

He also said that the complainant just have to take note of the plate number, the time, and the date of the incident.

“They don’t have to get the body number because sometimes that can be tampered,” he advised.

Further, he revealed that based on last year’s unofficial statistics there has been a decline in the number of complaints filed in their office.

In 2008, a total of 452 cases pertaining to PUVs were filed in their office, 60-70 percent of which involved taxi drivers with cases ranging from arrogance to refusal to board passengers, as well as threats hailed at passengers.

In 2009, the estimated number of incidents involving taxicabs numbered at 209, jeepneys at 181, buses 29 and six cases involving GT Express.

Majority of the incidents occurred in the months of June and September. Surprisingly, the Sinulog celebration which attracted an estimated eight million visitors to the city recorded lower incidence of disputes involving public utility vehicles.

As of this writing, the complaints filed at the adjudication office figured at 30, these include disputes involving private vehicles.

Catarongan believes that the increasing vigilance of the informed commuters could have contributed in the decline in the number of incidents.

He was also fast to give credit to the effort of their office to give their image a facelift by cleaning up the acts of scrupulous and abusive agents.

“Most drivers and operators have already observed that the LTO now is totally different from yesterday’s LTO,” Catarongan said. “We do not hesitate to punish the driver if he is found to have violated (the contract).” — Ritche T. Salgado/MEEV   (FREEMAN NEWS)