Tugade ‘personally’ disagrees with LTO’s bid for e-scooter registration

Electric scooters at a shop in Quezon City. PHOTO/A. Cerojano

MANILA, Philippines — Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said he personally disagrees with the proposal on registration of electric and gas-powered scooters, citing issues for motor registration during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Ayaw ko pangunahan pero kung tatanungin mo ako, payag ba akong ma-rehistro? Personal na opinyon ko ‘yun, pero makiking ako sa nakakarami: Ayaw ko. Kasi ngayon nga ho yung rehistro ng sasakyan, pinostpone natin, inextend natin. E bakit ngayon pati e-scooter?” Tugade said during DZRH radio program ‘Dos Por Dos’ on Wednesday,  responding to the idea of registration for scooters.

(I don’t want to get ahead of myself but if you ask me, ‘am I in favor of having the scooters registered?’ This is my personal opinion but if I will listen to the public, I don’t want to. Because even the registration for cars, we had that postponed. Why do we need to have e-scooters registered?)

“Malawak na pagpapananaw yan. Pandemya ngayon ito. Sa existing normal registration, nag-extend tayo. Mayroong mga sasakyan na pwedeng gamitin, bakit hahanapan ng kadahilan na irehistro ‘yan?” he added.

(That is a broad view. We are now in a pandemic. In our existing, normal registration, we extended. There are vehicles that we can use so why do we need to find reasons to have that registered.)

In a separate statement on Thursday, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) stressed that there are no official guidelines yet for those using the said vehicle as the initial draft is not yet reviewed by the attached agencies of DOTr.

“There are no official/final guidelines yet. The one submitted to us is an initial draft that is yet to be reviewed by the DOTr Road Sector, Legal Affairs, and the Office of the Secretary,” read the statement to clarify matters on proposed guidelines for e-scooters.

In a previous interview, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) said they are drafting guidelines for the use of e-scooters which includes the requirement of registration of the said vehicle as well as driver’s license for those using it. [ac]