The Quezon City Council is set to pass a landmark ordinance providing personal and accident insurance coverage for tricycle drivers and passengers, Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte said in news statement issued on Thursday.
“I think…the ordinance will pass unanimously and that there will be no opposition to such ordinance,” Belmonte, the presiding officer of the QC Council added.
The landmark local legislation comes after the QC Council passed earlier this year the first ever Road Safety Ordinance in the country. The said law will serve as an appendix to the insurance coverage ordinance.
The ordinance—the first of its kind in the country—will implement a Personal Accident Insurance Coverage Program for tricycle passengers and drivers. The proposal is set to be discussed in a public hearing today (Friday).
“When we did the math, we computed that if we sponsor the insurance in the beginning, it will only cost the city about P20 million,” Belmonte said.
Speaking to tricycle drivers, Belmonte said they need not worry since the local government will shoulder part of the expenses for the insurance policy in the first year.
She said initially, the QC government will shoulder the cost so as not to burden the tricycle drivers during its first year of implementation.
The ordinance allocates a seed fund amounting to P20 million for this purpose.
The Quezon City Tricycle Franchising Board will be the lead agency for the pioneering insurance program. Failure to avail themselves of the personal accident insurance for drivers and passengers may result in the cancellation of existing tricycle franchises.
Tricycle operators will have a grace period of one year after the passage of the ordinance to comply with the new regulation.
Lawyers for Commuters’ Safety and Protection (LCSP) founder Ariel Inton expressed his gratitude for the much-awaited ordinance.
Inton expressed his thanks to the Quezon City Council and the Office of the Vice Mayor for its consideration of the personal accident insurance for tricycle drivers and passengers.
“Hundreds of thousands take tricycle rides every day, but the tricycle is the only public-utility vehicle wherein passengers and the drivers are not insured precisely because no local government unit has ever come out with an ordinance. But now Quezon City will not only mandate it but will spend for it in the beginning,” Inton added.
The former LTFRB board member also mentioned that other LGU’s should replicate the ordinance.
“We have been talking about safety, but have we ever thought of giving them really that safety concern, that in case something bad happens, will the passenger and driver get something?” he asked.
In Quezon City, there are over 24,600 tricycle units licensed to operate by the city government, with 150 tricycle operators and drivers’ associations or TODA.
