Transportation Secretary blasts motorcycle-hailing app Angkas for continuing operations 

Photo: Angkas Facebook page
Photo: Angkas Facebook page

The beef between motorcycle-hailing app Angkas and regulators is far from over.

In a statement the Philippine Department of Transportation (DOTr) emailed to media yesterday, its Secretary Arthur Tugade blasted Angkas for continuing operations despite the Supreme Court’s (SC) decision to allow it and its agency the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTRFB) to apprehend the app’s drivers.

Tugade told the LTFRB in English and Filipino: “Catch all the Angkas riders who violate. It’s not right for Angkas to violate the law and the Supreme Court order. That’s wrong. When the court released a TRO (temporary restraining order) against the DOTr, we followed. We hope they do the same. The rule of law must prevail.”

In the DOTr’s statement, it reiterated its stance that Angkas is illegal because it violates the Land Transportation and Traffic Code (Republic Act 4136) which states that two-wheel vehicles — such as motorcycles — are banned from being used for hire.

It also called the app’s operations a “colorum,” Filipino slang for public transportation vehicles that violate franchise regulations.

The LTFRB had suspended Angkas from operating last November, citing these reasons but in August, a Mandaluyong City court issued a preliminary injunction that stopped the DOTr and LTFRB from interfering with the app’s operations.

However, on Wednesday, a TRO the SC issued against the preliminary injunction was made public, allowing regulators to once again apprehend Angkas drivers.

But Angkas won’t budge.

Two days after the SC’s TRO was made public, the company said that it would still continue operations and promised that it would support its drivers if caught by regulators.

And commuters are backing them up.

Angkas has become an alternative mode of transportation for many of Metro Manila’s commuters. They’re favored for being cheaper than taxis and for motorcycles’ ability to get around the metro’s heavy traffic.

They’re also very active on social media, often riding on viral memes in promoting the app, and has amassed a huge following among millennials.

But all these don’t impress Tugade much.

“The price of a swift and cheap ride may be your life,” he was quoted in the DOTr statement.

According to the department, Angkas bikers and operators proved to have continued services will have to pay a PHP6,000 (US$113.34) fine, be meted a three-month vehicle impound, and will be blacklisted from securing a franchise with the LTFRB.



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