City administrator's office assumes new responsibility

CEBU, Philippines - Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes' new executive order directs the city administrator's office to accept applications and renewal of franchises of tricycles-for-hires in the city.

In his executive order, Cortes said the city administrator's office should also make sure the renewal of franchises would not exceed the 2,000 franchises which is allowed under section 9 of city ordinance no. 032 series of 1991.

The city administrator's office should also ensure that during the franchise renewal application these franchise holders have made valid payments of their previous dues through the cross-referencing of the names of the franchisee and the official receipt number as shown in the franchise with the records at the city treasurer's office and the masterlist kept by the office.

Section 4 of city ordinance no. 032/91 should also be complied which states that only residents of the city are qualified to own or operate tricycles-for-hire.

The Mayor also has directed that an updated official list of franchise holders be submitted to his office, The Traffic Enforcement and Management Office, and the secretary of the Sangguniang Panlungsod.

City administrator James Abadia, in a separate interview yesterday, said that with the renewal of tricycle franchises, a thorough verification will be conducted by his office so that fake franchise holders can be eliminated.

A review of the list of franchise holders came after it was discovered that most of the franchises of motorcycles-for-hire operators were fake.

Abadia also said the 2,600 franchise holders in the masterlist will be double checked.

"Duna man guy duha ka tawo nga nanag-iya sa usa ka franchise but we will only accommodate kun kinsa ang nag-una nga nakakuha niini," Abadia said.

Abadia said that once the masterlist is fully cleansed and come up with only 2,000 franchise holders, the next thing that will be done is to prohibit the transfer of a franchise from one person to another.

Lawyer Rod Francis Bagaslao said that although only 2,000 franchises were issued by the city for operators, there are around 8,000 motorcycles which are operating in the city and it was even discovered that most of these operators are not residents of the city but from neighboring towns and cities. - THE FREEMAN