Court junks Angkas bid to stop 10,000 drivers cap

#SAVEANGKAS Dubbed as #SaveAngkas Unity Gathering, thousands of biker-partners of ride-hailing firm Angkas troops along the stretch of White Plains Avenue up to the Edsa Kalayaaan Shrine, Quezon City on Sunday morning, December 22, 2019, to protest the government’s 10,000-biker cap per transport network company to be imposed next year for the extended pilot run. INQUIRER PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — A Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge has denied Angkas’ appeal to stop the implementation of revised guidelines for a motorcycle taxi pilot test for lack of merit, saying it failed to prove that the 10,000 limit being imposed on its number of riders was against the law.

Branch 212 Judge Rizalina Capco-Umali’s order dated Jan. 10, which also dismissed the ride-hailing service’s petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) and writ of preliminary injunction, effectively lifted one of two legal obstacles to the riders’ cap being implemented by the technical working group (TWG) in charge of the pilot test.

The other is a 20-day TRO issued by a Quezon City RTC judge pending a hearing on Angkas’ other petition for a writ of preliminary injunction, also against the 10,000-limit and the inclusion of its two competitors, JoyRide and MoveIt, in the pilot test. Umali said that should she grant the motorcycle taxi service’s request for an injunctive writ against the drivers’ cap, and in effect declare the revised guidelines for the pilot test invalid for being unconstitutional, “it would mean the court [had] prejudged the main case and reversed the rule on the burden of proof because it would [presume as] true the very proposition that the petitioners [were] duty-bound to prove in the first place.”

She added that the court was “mindful to avoid issuing a writ which would effectively dispose of the main case without trial and due process.”

The TWG announced in December that Angkas, JoyRide and MoveIt would be limited to 10,000 riders each for the duration of the pilot test. Angkas, however, claimed that the cap—part of the revised guidelines—was anticompetitive.

But the judge was not convinced, saying Angkas failed to prove this. Presumption of regularity “prevails until it is overcome by no less than clear and convincing evidence to the contrary. Thus, unless it is rebutted, it becomes conclusive,” Umali wrote in her decision.

Earlier, the Mandaluyong RTC granted Angkas’ petition to stop the implementation of the riders’ cap by issuing a 72-hour TRO. In a petition dated Jan. 6, the motorcycle taxi service also asked the court to issue a regular TRO after the lapse of the first TRO along with a writ for preliminary injunction; and after hearings, to make the injunction permanent.