Zambo City tricycle passengers want to bring woes to Digong

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Marieta Llemit, a 67-year-old retired teacher, once took a tricycle from her home in Pasonanca for an eye checkup in the city proper.

Upon reaching her destination, the tricycle driver took her P100 and hurriedly left without giving her change and without saying a word.

“How can I complain? The driver left. He should have returned my P60,” said Llemit, who lives just about three kilometers from the clinic.

Mirasol Monteza, a reporter of radio network RMN Zamboanga, said one tricycle driver charged her P40 in fare for the  short distance between Paseo del Mar and Pilar Streets.

Monteza said she was with a guest from General Santos City and what the driver did brought shame to the city.

Llemit and Monteza said, while their complaints could be too localized, they believed presumptive President-elect Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte would be the answer to abusive drivers in the city.

Llemit said he wished Duterte would find time to punish abusive drivers in the city, who are being treated with kid gloves by city officials.

Recently, Duterte said, aside from criminality and drugs, he would also stop abuses committed against passengers of public utility vehicles, like taxicabs.

Roland Ramos, a resident, said tricycle drivers here had become abusive because the ordinance that regulated fare was not being strictly enforced.

Jofre Rasul, a faculty member of Western Mindanao State University, agreed that Duterte should heed the plea of victims of what he described as “vultures on wheels.”

“Given the fact that our local authorities seem helpless over this pestering problem, we need (Duterte’s) political will and firmness,” Rasul said. Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao