CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — The city’s Roads and Traffic Administration (RTA) will deputize barangay “tanods” (enforcers) in regulating “motorelas” or customized tricycles, including boat-engine customized “motorsikads” along national highways.
RTA chief of operations Lito Deloso said the local government unit (LGU) will heed the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) directive to all LGUs to strictly enforce the ban on tricycles from the national highways to minimize accidents.
Deloso said there are no tricycles plying the national highways in Cagayan de Oro but there are motorsikads and the Indian version of tuk-tuks or the “Tri-Cabs”, which have proliferated in recent years.
Deloso said these modified vehicles are also covered by the DILG order. He said their traffic enforcers will be stretched thin once they implement the DILG directive, thus they will be compelled to tap barangay tanods. After all, Deloso pointed out that motorsikads register their paying passenger-loaded units in the barangay level.
Cagayan de Oro has a long stretch of highway that spans the barangays of Bugo and Iponan, and a short one in upper Puerto exiting southward towards Bukidnon.
In an interview with JonJon Rodriguez, a village chief of Barangay Nazareth, he said he welcomes the move to prohibit tricycles and motorsikads along the highways to minimize accidents.
He said this may not apply in his village since the roads within his jurisdiction are all alternate roads.
However, he expressed hope that the DILG order would not apply to all main thoroughfares because it would deprive the less fortunate of their livelihood.
Lapasan village chief Julito Ogsimer has augmented the barangay tanods that would prohibit such public utility vehicles from traversing or crossing the highways.
He also directed the chairman of the barangay’s Committee of Public Utility and Peace and Order to set guidelines and strategy in connection with the order.
Lapasan is among the longest highways in the 40 rural villages in the city, where light to heavy vehicles ply to and from the eastern part of Mindanao – specifically going to the Caraga region, Davao City and Cotabato City via the Bukidnon Highway. The Agora Bus and Agri Products Terminal is located here.
In an interview with driver Rolando Maquipotin, he said he has to abide by the order but asked the government not to phase-out motorelas — his means of livelihood.
“Manghinaut lang unta mi nga dili kini moabut ngadto sa pag phaseout sa among mga sakyanan nga mao ra intawon among panginabuhian (We are hoping that this will not go to the point of a phase-out of our vehicle as this is our only means of livelihood),” he said. ( Ercel Maandig/PNA)
