Motorcycle taxis will be required to use barriers once they are allowed to resume operations in order to protect commuters from the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019, according to the Department of Interior and Local Government.
In a report by The STAR, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said that motorcycle taxis will be required to use barriers since riders don’t personally know their passengers. Commuters, meanwhile, would be encouraged to use their own helmet as a precautionary measure.
“If it’s a motorcycle taxi, automatically a barrier is a requirement because the rider and the passenger don’t know each other,” Año said in a radio interview.
Meanwhile, Malacañang said that there is no need for President Duterte to use emergency powers to allow motorcycle taxis to operate amid the pandemic.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said that the House panel has issued a resolution on the resumption of a pilot study on the public transportation mode.
The STAR reported that the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases expressed its support for the resumption of the study that would allow ride-hailing services like Angkas to operate during the pandemic.
The pilot study sought to determine whether motorcycle taxis are safe. The study expired last April, which makes motorcycle taxi operations illegal.
Metro Manila mayors earlier requested the government to resume the pilot study on motorcycle taxis. – Alexis Romero, Neil Jayson Servallos