Motorcycle taxi app “Angkas” has secured a 72-hour Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the government policy limiting the number of Angkas bikers to 10,000 in Manila and 3,000 in Cebu.
Citing “grave and irreparable injury” that Angkas bikers may suffer and the “extreme urgency” of the situation, a Mandaluyong City Regional Trial Court ruled to grant the TRO which restrains the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) from implementing the Revised Guidelines on the motorcycle taxi pilot program.
“A 72-hour Temporary Restraining Order is hereby issued upon posting of a bond in the amount of Three Hundred Thousand Pesos (P300,000.00), enjoining the Respondents and/or any other person/s acting for or on their behalf, from implementing the Revised General Guidelines for the Pilot Implementation of Motorcycle Taxis insofar as it puts a cap on the number of bikers that Angkas is entitled to and from performing any act that limits and impairs their rights to deal with an continue with their contracts with Angkas,” the court order stated.
“This proves that justice is on our side. We are only trying to make an honest living and helping commuters every day to get to their destinations fast and safe,” said Rommel Villanueva, one of the bikers who filed the Petition. “Why should the government stop us? Why should our families go hungry? We are not doing anything wrong,” he added.
The Technical Working Group of the LTFRB, which oversees the implementation of the pilot program for motorcyle taxis, issued on December 19 the Revised Guidelines practically slashing the number of the 27,000 existing Angkas bikers to 10,000 in Metro Manila. This was met with uproar by netizens and commuters who have come to rely on Angkas for their daily commute.
The Angkas bikers, for their part, lost no time in filing a Petition for Injunction with the Mandaluyong RTC on Monday, Jan. 6, and asked for the TRO.
