“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.
Michael Farrar says
It is not just the white taxi cabs, the yellow taxi cabs do it too. About a week ago I was in Manila with my wife and daughter from Dumaguete and we needed to take a taxi from the airport to Robinsons Ermita. Normally it would be a long trip, but it was a Sunday and there was very little traffic on the road. When we came out of the airport we went straight to the “regulated” yellow taxi cab line, and were ushered into the front taxi. After stowing the bags at the back the driver and I both got in the front seats and he immediately took off. Only after driving away from the taxi stand did I notice that the meter was not functional. It was not just switched off, it was broken. I thought they were “regulated” taxi cabs? He made an excuse that his meter had been broken and he hadn’t been able to fix it (really?), and then said the cost of the trip would be 600p. I have done that trip several times on meter, even with a lot of traffic, and it has never cost me more than 300p, on meter. What could we do? We are now stuck with the three of us and a baby, with all our luggage… I haggled him down to 450p, knowing that we were still getting ripped off majorly. I didn’t report it because he is a fellow Bicolano, but it just goes to show that this is not a problem just with white taxi cabs. Sadly, this has happened many times to me. Even when we were in the city just flagging down a passing taxi the driver told us that he would only take us (it was maybe 6 blocks over) if we would add 50p to whatever the meter said. Again, what choice did we have? I didn’t make a big fuss that time either, though I originally thought he said 15p. Haggled him down to a 20p “tip”. I normally give tips to taxi cabs because I understand their predicament, it is just the dishonestly that bugs me. That being said, I have also taken many rides from very honest and good taxi cab drivers, so not everyone is bad.