MEMBERS of the transport sector in Dagupan led by the Alliance of United Transport Organization Inc. (AUTOCORP) held a dialogue with the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) on Tuesday to seek the amendment of a city ordinance that imposed double-coding days effectively keeping them off the streets for two days.

Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, who chairs the SP, immediately referred the request to a committee for the scheduling of hearing days to tackle the matter.

Mayor Alipio Fernandez, for his part, hailed the dialogue that was also attended by City Legal Officer George Mejia as a “healthy partnership between stakeholders and the city government”.

“I welcome the public hearing since it will include the vehicular and pedestrian sectors, and this will enable everyone to understand the capacity of our road networks,” the mayor said.

Benny Aquino, head of AUTOCORP, said they want an amendment of City Ordinance No. 1848-2005 banning all passenger jeepneys from plying the city roads for two days within the week because it had drastically reduced their earnings.

The group said the ban for two coding days spells a big drain to their income.

AUTOCORP, with help from Lawyer Antonio Tiong, also a jeepney operator, sued then Mayor Benjamin Lim and members of the city council charging that ordinance was manifestly arbitrary, oppressive, discriminatory and confiscatory amounting to gross and trenchant violation of the Constitution.

Aquino indicated that his group is willing to withdraw its suit as their plight has a good chance of being addressed by the current set of city officials.

The double-coding system, said Mayor Fernandez, is basically a regulatory function of the Sanggunian but added that “we should look at it with the interest of the city and the transport industry as the main consideration”.

The mayor stressed that in looking into the plight of transport workers, “we should never sacrifice orderliness”.

Aquino also suggested a terminal system from point to point of all public utility vehicles coming from outside Dagupan City instead of allowing all the PUVs to go around the city to load and unload passengers.

Exception would be PUJs plying the city and those from adjacent Calasiao.

He also recommended that the SP reconsiders their recommendation imposing one coding day for each private vehicle to help decongest traffic in the city—LM

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