EDITORIAL - Biting more than they are willing to chew

Officials of both the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board and the Land Transportation Office reportedly met with their counterparts from the Department of Education on the matter of unregistered, and thus illegal, carpool services.

These carpool services reportedly pose a danger to schoolchildren. What is remarkable about this sudden concern is that nothing is said about what makes the operation of illegal carpool services any different from the legal ones, if any, as to make them dangerous.

To make a carpool service legal and valid, all that an operator need do is register with the LTO and secure a franchise from the LTFRB. How merely meeting that requirement suddenly makes an erstwhile dangerous operation to one that is safe for children is difficult to understand.

A registered operation will most probably still have the same driver and the same vehicle, the only difference being that the vehicle will now sport the “standard yellow color and window railings” which really do not make the operation any safer.

We do not begrudge LTO and LTFRB officials for trying to uphold the law as far as land transportation matters are concerned. But the operation of carpool services, whether legal or illegal, is far less pressing than those that truly require immediate attention.

So, instead of spending precious time over a matter that has posed no real problem to anyone (we have yet to hear of an incident involving carpool services, whether legal or illegal), why don’t the LTFRB and LTO officials do something about the real land transportation problems.

For example, why hasn’t even a sneeze been dedicated to the blatant violation by drivers of the fare for students and the announced rollback in minimum fares in the aftermath of the series of oil prices cuts?

 What we heard from these agencies instead is an exhortation for the public to report violations. Susmaryosep. That is as good as saying better drop the subject and go to bed, because every Tom, Dick and Harry knows it is too much of a hassle for anyone to play policeman.

If the LTFRB and the LTO cannot do the monitoring themselves, how can they expect students going to school and people going to their jobs to find the time to argue with drivers, much less file a complaint? If nothing can be done about this, why bother with carpool services?