LC set to review standard trike sizes

By Dominic B. dela Cruz

Staff Reporter

“CUTE” TRICYCLES’ days here in Laoag City may be numbered.

This came after the Sangguniang Panlungsod has recommended the review of the tricycle ordinance, particularly on its standard sizes.

Laoag councilor Donald Nicolas made this move in reply to a privilege speech of council ex-officio member Liga ng mga Barangay Pres. Rudys Caesar Fariñas. Nicolas is the chairperson of the council’s committee on transportation.

In his privilege speech, the young Fariñas scored the tricycles and their drivers in the city, especially since he used to ride in tricycles when he was still the city’s Sangguniang Kabataan president.

He related that he used to jot down tricycle body numbers and the drivers’ comments on whether they are nice, rude and has overcharged him. He also noted down the tricycle sizes.

“No agluganak iti tricycle arakupek pay dayta tumeng ko apo ta no saan ket maitimognak metten no adda humps.  No dadduma, adda nakausli pay nga tornilyo, kada screw, masugat pay iti ulok ket saan nga siak ngata met iti kadakkelan iti bagina nga Ilocano apo. Isunga saan koma met nga pambar daytoy kinadakkelko nga saan nga umanay iti tricycle.  Aside from daydiay apo adda pay dagitay times nga no aglugannak iti tricycle, adda makitak nga sarming nakaderetso met ditoy private part kon.  Ket no babai-ak apo ah ket di kad nakita da tay idul-dulin ko nukwan,” Fariñas said.

Fariñas however rued that the phone where he noted down all tricycle numbers and drivers’ comments was corrupted and the list was deleted.

“Ngem I remember this one tricycle driver, intulnog nak ditoy balay mi ditoy Barit apo, nagpletenak iti P30 ta naggapuak met laeng centro, nayunam ket adayo iti naggapuam kunana kaniak apo. Nakarkaro pay iti pinnakisarita na kaniak apo ngem nakababain met no tuladek.  Husto laeng dayta manong ta isu met iti pinagplet-pletek nga talaga dayta kunak, ipapilit na latta apo pukkawannak latta,” he related.

This incident was personally witnessed by his father, Rep. Rodolfo C. Fariñas (1^st district, Ilocos Norte) and was later reported to the city’s traffic division. After reporting the incident, they learned that the driver concerned already had three counts of overcharging.

In view of all these, the young Fariñas appealed to the offices concerned to strictly implement the standard tricycle size and to give incentives to good tricycle drivers.

Meanwhile, Nicolas said there is a standard size for tricycles in the city and this has been discussed in the previous sanggunian. He now plans to hold a public hearing on the issue.

He added that the committee only sees the tricycle’s condition during renewal of their registration and inventories. He then recommended that they study this further to solve the problem.

Reacting to this, council secretary Enrico Aurelio said there is no ordinance that was approved stating the standard size of a tricycle or prescribed dimensions of sidecars.

This is the reason why complaints have even reached his office and the traffic division from the riding public about the different dimensions of tricycles most especially those small ones.

Relative to this, Aurelio welcomed the recommendations made by the city council to revisit and study further the tricycle code or an ordinance for the approval of the tricycle standard sizes or its physical features.