Lawyer Romulo Macalintal. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Transport operators on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court justices to conduct an ocular inspection of the Southwest Interim Transport Terminal (SITT) in Parañaque City to see for themselves its dismal condition that could put commuters at risk.
At the same time, the transport operators through their counsel Romulo Macalintal also urged the high court to order the Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to stop implementing the amendment to their certificates of public convenience.
In their 12-page omnibus motion, Macalintal said “the ocular inspection will give the honorable court (SC) the opportunity to determine if the Southwest Interim Transport Terminal is ‘at par with international standards’ or operating under a very substandard condition where the public is hazardously exposed to air pollution and heavy traffic condition.”
“The unsanitary comfort rooms for male and female which are constructed adjacent to each other aggravate the sad and agonizing experiences of the commuters, the drivers and the conductors. Furthermore, the commuters were forced to incur additional expenses because they have to transfer from one ride to another to reach their destination in Manila,” they said.
They said the SITT violated the requirements under Executive Order No. 67 which provides for the establishment of the Integrated Transport System.
Under the EO, the terminal should be “at par with international standard which could provide an effective interconnections between different transport modes and services.”
They added that EO 67 provided for only two terminals—South and North Transport Terminals and then all of a sudden, the LTFRB and the Department of Transportation and Communications came up with the SITT.
Petitioners also said that they were not consulted and no hearing was conducted when their certificates of public convenience was amended because of the existence of SITT.
“Our business was greatly affected and we are now suffering extreme financial losses, aside from the fact that hundreds and hundreds of drivers and conductors of buses affected by the SITT had to resign because their regulars trips were reduced from four (4) times a day to only one or two times a day because they have to wait for more than two hours at the SITT before their buses could be allowed to enter the premises to pick up the passengers”, the group lamented.
The group added that “while the objective of the SITT was allegedly to decongest traffic at EDSA, what happened is that the alleged traffic in EDSA was merely transferred to Macapagal Avenue and the Coastal Road and nearby streets.”