“I’ll ban the white taxis here. Everyone will be affected.”
Edmond Real, the general manager of Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport, gave this warning yesterday to white taxis who overcharge passengers at the airport. This was prompted by a viral video by YouTuber Haley Dasovich that shows a taxi driver refusing to turn on the meter and lecturing her for expecting him to use it.
“If these guys — these troublemakers — ruin the image of the airport and of the Philippines, I’ll really ban them,” Real said.
Dasovich’s video of an overcharging cab driver highlights a problem with taxi services that has been persistent for decades.
Despite crackdowns on erring cabs, the Land Transportation Regulatory and Franchising Board (LTFRB) has been unable to stop this practice, as Dasovich experienced on her return to the country from San Francisco, United States, last Wednesday.
The video shows the driver asking Dasovich for a flat rate of PHP500 (about US$10). When she refuses, he tells her: “Ok. I’ll transfer you to another taxi Ate,” apparently because he had been waiting at the airport for almost two hours.
The driver, identified in an ABS-CBN News report as Frederick Cayanan, was summoned to Real’s office last Thursday. Airport officials found out that there had been another complaint filed against him after Dasovich.
Transportation officials then impounded his taxi, confiscated his license and banned him from picking up passengers from the airport in the future.
Haley Dasovich is the sister of another Filipino American vlogger, Wil Dasovich.
If you don’t want to take a white taxi from NAIA, your other options are the airport-regulated yellow cabs — which have a higher flag down rate and a faster meter — or using the Grab and Uber apps.
If you have complaints about taxi drivers, you can contact the LTFRB through the following channels:
24/7 HOTLINE: 1342
Email: complaint.ltfrb.gov.ph@gmail.com
Twitter: @LTFRB
Facebook: LTFRB Citizen Enforcer
Public Assistance & Complaints Desk: 426-2515, 426-2534
If you’ve made a complaint about erring taxis in the past, let us know how it went by tweeting us @coconutsmanila or commenting below.
