A bill that seeks to provide for improved restroom facilities and free internet access in land transportation and roll-on/roll-off (roro) terminals nationwide hurdled the third and final reading at the Senate on Tuesday.
Senate Bill 1749, otherwise known as an “Act to Improve Land Transportation Terminals, Stations, Stops, Resto Areas and Roll-on/Roll-off Terminals” was approved with 18 affirmative votes, no negative vote and zero abstention.
The bill prohibits the collection fees for the use of sanitary facilities in transport terminals.
The bill also mandates the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), in coordination with the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and other concerned agencies, to provide free internet access in the terminals.
Aside from clean restrooms, each station must also have a separate lactating station for the breastfeeding mothers.
Senator Grace Poe, principal author of the bill, said it was time to repay domestic travelers with sanctuaries such as clean restrooms.
“I am sure you travel and seen this for yourself. Sometimes, we go to gas stations and use the restrooms there and we cannot even use it if we do not fill up or we do not buy anything from the store,” Poe said in her sponsorship speech.
Poe, citing records from the Philippine Statistics Authority, said 42 million Filipinos or 58 percent of the population ages15 and above had travelled in 2016. She also noted that domestic tourism expenditures reached P2.108 billion in 2016.
“Seventy-nine percent of domestic travelers in 2016 spent around P476 per trip for land transportation. Let us repay them with transport terminals that have clean toilets free of charge, a decent breast feeding station and free WiFi or internet,” Poe said. /muf