Habal-habal (Part 5) - The needed study

In early 2018, I wrote a four-part series on the travails of the “habal-habal”, the motorcycle-for-ride transport mode not only in the Philippines but in almost all countries in the global south. This was at that time that former Mayor Osmeña created the Two-wheeled Motorized Vehicle Monitoring, Coordinating, and Assistance Unit (TMV-MCAU) under EO No. 023 s.2017. Pending the passage of a law in Congress, this was an attempt to manage this half-a-century-old mode of mobility used by millions of Filipinos.

This rejoinder is prompted by a news article yesterday on Davao Representative Paolo Duterte’s lament on the delay of the “pilot study” on the “viability and safety” of motorcycles-for-hire as a mode of commuter transport, promised by LTFRB in 2019. “It has dragged on, continuing on its fourth year – with no certainty on when this would be concluded and its recommendations released to the public,” he said. I certainly agree --studies like this usually wouldn’t take four months, maybe six months at most. A friend of mine even commented, “why do a study on something Filipinos have been seeing and using for the last 40 years?”

As an engineer and a former public servant, I do agree that LTFRB should do proper study. It won’t take six months, and it's already four years since they promised the public, and Congress, that they will. They even created a Technical Working Group (TWG) to do it. What has the TWG been doing all these years? If there is any particular reason, they decided not to do it, then they have to inform the public and advise Congress accordingly. Isn’t it protocol, or just even good manners to do so --to explain why you can’t do what you have promised?

For me, it’s apt that it was Rep. Duterte who raised the issue. The first study of note was made by a colleague, Danielle Guillen, in 2004, entitled “Motorcycle-propelled Public Transport and Local Policy Development: The Case of Tricycles and Habal-habal in Davao City, Philippines.” It was also in Kapalong, Davao del Norte, that I had my first experience of riding habal-habal on a daily basis. Habal-habal is a regular mode of transport in most of Davao area, or the whole Philippines, for that matter. It’s the only mode of mobility in many areas for millions of Filipinos. And recently, it has become the choice mode for urban areas as well. It has evolved into its modern version called Angkas, Joyride, Move It, and the like.

So why is LTFRB dragging its feet on the matter? The have a TWG, surely it should already have findings after a few months. Are they afraid they’ll be tasked to oversee this denomination? They shouldn’t, I believe Congress will place this mode under the LGUs to oversee. After all, three-wheelers (tricycles and trisikads) are already within their ambit. What is just asked is a study, which LTFRB, as the “regulatory” agency on public transportation, has the mandate and proficiency to do. Maybe it’s just an oversight, the COVID-19 pandemic and all. But the pandemic should have given them free time to do the study. I hope it’s forthcoming soon.