Yellow taxi drivers 'tampered' meters

CEBU, Philippines - For allegedly tampering with their taxi meters, some 15 taxi drivers were terminated by the Cebu City Airport Taxi Operators Inc. (CCATOI), the operator of the yellow taxi units of the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

In response, one taxi driver filed an illegal termination case before the National Labor Relation Commission-Regional Arbitration Board yesterday.

Complainant Nelson Rebleza said the other 14 terminated drivers will file their complaints today.

“Mo-file man unta ming tanan ganiha but ang 14 kabuok wala man silay cedula. So maong mubalik sila sa NLRC para ipasaka na ang maong kaso,” Rebleza said.

Rebleza said he was surprised to learn that he was no longer allowed to drive even if he sent proper notice to the company that he cannot report for work and that he will only remit half of the rental because his wife just gave birth.

But Richard Cabucos, chairman of CCATOI explained that these drivers were fired for recalibrating their taxi meters. 

They also conspired not to remit the exact daily rentals for their units, which has affected the business.

“Nasakpan na namo sila nga ilang gipang- usab ang metro sa taxi. Pwerteng paspasa sa mga metro sa mga taxi. The company have calibrated all our taxi units unya nangasuko ni sila,” Cabucos said.

Cabucos said they do not want to be sanctioned by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board for having tampered meters.

“Their take home pay is more than the usual earnings of other taxi drivers at the expense of the riding public. The company is doing the right thing. Dili mi gusto multahan sa LTFRB kay paspas among meter kay tag-P10,000 na kada unit ang multa ana. We will just face them in court,” Cabucos said.

Cabucos said they have been receiving complaints that yellow taxis have a very fast meters.

A yellow taxi’s flagdown rate is P70 for the first 500 meters and P4 for the succeeding 300 meters.

This is already much higher than the usual flagdown rates of white taxi units which is P40 for the first 500 meters and P2.50 for the succeeding meters.

“Mas nimahal og samot ang pletehan sa yellow taxi tungod sa ilang gibuhat nga ilang gipang-calibrate unya pwerte nang paspasa hinoon. For example, imbes P180.00 ra ang bayranan kay mahimo nang P300,” said Cabucos.

Cabucos however assured the riding public that they have addressed the problem and all yellow taxi meters have normal meters now.

 CCATOI has 60 taxi units with at least 100 drivers. /MBG (FREEMAN)