Mandaluyong RTC issues 72-hour TRO on motorcycle taxi guidelines

January 6, 2020

The Mandaluyong City Regional Trial Court has issued a 72-hour temporary restraining order against the Department of Transportation’s guidelines on the implementation of the pilot run for motorcycle taxis. 

Vice/ Acting Executive Judge Ofelia Calo said there was an urgency in the releasing a temporary restraining order for the implementation of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board’s Revised Guidelines for the Pilot Implementation of Motorcycle Taxis as 17,000 Angkas riders who have been allowed to participate in the pilot run will “suffer grave irreparable injury as they would lose their jobs.” 

The court granted an injunction  on the 10,000 arbitrary cap in Metro Manila and 3,000 riders for Metro Cebu per company imposed by the Technical Working Group on Motorcycle Taxis.

Angkas sought the TRO before the Mandaluyong court.

The Department of Transportation said it will comment on the ruling once it receives a copy.

“A 72-hour Temporary Restraining Order is hereby issued upon posting of a bond in the amount of Three Hundred Thousand Pesos (P300,000.00), enjoining the respondents and/or any other person/s acting for or on their behalf, from implementing the Revised General Guidelines for the Pilot Implementation of Motorcycle Taxis insofar as it puts a cap on the number of bikers that Angkas is entitled to and from performing any act that limits and impairs their rights to deal with an continue with their contracts with Angkas,” the order states.

Rommel Villanueva, one of the bikers who filed the petition said the order proves that “justice is on our side. We are only trying to make an honest living and helping commuters every day to get to their destinations fast and safe.”

“Why should the government stop us?  Why should our families go hungry?  We are not doing anything wrong,” he added.

The Technical Working Group of the LTFRB which was overseeing the pilot program for motorcyle taxis issued on December 19 revised guidelines cutting the number of the 27,000 existing Angkas bikers to 10,000 in Metro Manila.  DMS