DOTr forms ‘Task Force Kamao’ to go after ‘colorum’ vehicles

CRACKDOWN A task force dedicated to eliminating illegally operating vehicles has been formed to combat the problem that has been compared to the drug menace. —RICHARD A. REYES

Transport officials launched last week the department’s latest interagency task force that would focus on ridding the country of “colorum” vehicles whose operations have supposedly become a “menace” like drugs.

Tim Orbos, the transport undersecretary for roads, said that with “Task Force Kamao,” the Department of Transportation (DOTr) would be able to further intensify its crackdown on colorum vehicles (those operating without a valid franchise) since it would now be supported by the military and the intelligence community.

Unlike the Interagency Council on Traffic that is composed of transport agencies, the task force has the Armed Forces of the Philippines, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, National Telecommunications Commission and even the Department of Justice among its partner agencies.

The task force was launched based on President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive last week.

According to Orbos, they need to form a task force solely focused on the problem since they do not know its full extent.

“People are dying and we don’t know if they are protected. The riding public is defenseless. It is the lives of our commuters, their livelihood, their dreams [that are at stake]. We can compare this to the drug problem to the point that, for the longest time, there are those from law enforcement [agencies] and local governments who back or operate [colorum vehicles],” Orbos said.

Since July 2016, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board has apprehended a total of 2,331 colorum vehicles nationwide.