JoyRide endorsement made for sake of competition — Pimentel

MANILA, Philippines — His move was meant to foster competition which allows the market to have more choices, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III said on Saturday, defending once more his endorsement of ride-hailing application JoyRide to the Department of Transportation (DOTr).

“In the name of competition — since monopolies are prohibited — I endorsed the request of one company for the DOTr to include it in the pilot testing,” Pimentel said, adding that he saw nothing wrong with his move and was baffled by the negative reaction directed his way.

“There should not be just one company. That is prohibited. They should compete in the marketplace. Beat your competitor by getting the people to prefer your app, download it and use it. It should not be the government declaring at the outset that you’re the winner and saying that you’re the only one allowed to operate,” the senator said of the government’s pilot testing program for motorcycle taxis.

Angkas was the only player on the first stage of the testing, but JoyRide and MoveIt were later included when the pilot period was extended.

The DOTr, however, imposed a cap of 30,000 motorcycle drivers to be divided equally among the three players, leading to protests from Angkas which said that the cap would displace 17,000 of its 27,000 drivers.

In a radio interview over dwIZ, Pimentel said his Senate office receives a lot of requests, including that from JoyRide which he agreed to endorse when he learned that only Angkas was included in the dry run for motorcycle taxis.

“I said then that the system being studied was so artificial because in real life, it’s not allowed that only one company would provide a taxi service,” he said.