House receives 2 e-trikes

MANILA, Philippines -  The House of Representatives received two solar and battery-powered tricycles (e-trikes) yesterday as part of efforts to wean the country away from using noisy and polluting gasoline-driven tricycles.

The tricycles were turned over in a simple ceremony to Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte Jr., who said the environment-friendly tricycles will be used in the premises of the Batasang Pambansa complex.

The turnover of the e-trikes is an initiative of Ang Kasangga sa Kaunlaran party-list Rep. Teodorico Haresco, who is the co-inventor of the vehicle along with Brian Stanley-Jackson, president and chief scientist of Technostrat Corp. that produced the patented solar-powered tricycles.

Haresco said their party-list group’s advocacy is micro-entrepreneurship, of which tricycle operators are a significant sector.

“This will help reduce the country’s addiction to oil while improving the business model of tricycle operators,” Haresco said.

He noted that since it does not depend on petroleum products, the e-trike “means total liberty and immunity from never-ending price increases.”

The e-trike has roughly the same cost as that of a standard gasoline-powered tricycle, he said. Haresco hopes that majority of the 1.5 million registered tricycles in the country would be replaced by e-trikes.