LTFRB mulls legalizing colorum passenger vans

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) is considering a plan to have the more than 200,000 colorum public utility vans nationwide legalized before the end of 2007, LTFRB Chairman Thompson Lantion told The STAR yesterday.

Lantion said his agency is currently drafting rules and regulations for legalizing colorum vans that have been illegally plying routes as public utility vehicles.

The agency is considering a fee of P30,000 for each operator of a colorum van for hire who wishes to register his vehicle as a legitimate public utility vehicle.

"There have been reactions that this amount is rather stiff, but we are also putting up a scheme wherein the applicants could pay in five or six installments of around P5,000 each," Lantion said.

He explained that legalizing the colorum vans will also benefit the public because colorum van passengers have no insurance coverage in case of an accident.

Lantion said that after a department order and the implementing rules and regulations have been finalized, the LTFRB will form programs aimed at ensuring the safety of passengers of the vans and other public utility vehicles.

Passenger jeepney and bus operators, especially those operating in the provinces, are unhappy with the move, however.

Armando dela Cruz, a jeepney operator whose vehicles ply routes in the Ilocos Region, complained that the vans have been eating into his market as passengers find them more comfortable than jeepneys.

"They have been cutting into our share of the riding public when they were illegal and the more so when they will become legal," he said.

Provincial bus operators, especially those operating mini-buses, are also protesting.

"Even when they were still illegal, they were already getting our customers since they filled up easily and were more comfortable than the jeepneys. What more if they are legalized?" said the conductor of a mini-bus plying the Solano-Santiago route who requested for anonymity.

Lantion stressed that the LTFRB will start strictly enforcing the law against colorum vehicles within the year after the lapse of a grace period of several months to allow the owners of the vehicles to apply for legalization.

Lantion further said that the LTFRB, the Land Transportation Office and other agencies of the Department of Transportation and Communications plan to lobby Congress for amendments to the Public Services Law, or Commonwealth Act 1936, to meet the present realities in public transport.