Angkas banks on Congress to legalize operations this 2019

Motorcycle taxi app DBDOYC Inc., or more popularly known as Angkas, hopes to get a congressional vote of confidence legalizing its services this year on the heels of a massive pilot testing this June covering its 27,000 rider-partners.

The company hopes Congress would pass into law a measure allowing motorcycles as public transport service vehicles, Angkas head of Regulatory and Public Affairs George Royeca said on Thursday.

“I think even before the six months are over, we hope to refile the bill in Congress and in Senate,” he told reporters in a press conference in Manila City.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) in May approved a six-month pilot testing of Angkas, during which the government would be observing company operations.

Angkas aims to retrain all of its 27,000 biker-partners to ensure and maintain a 99.997% safety rate.

The company intends to retrain 2,000 riders per day. Only 12,000 have so far taken the program.

The 15,000 remaining riders, Angkas said, will have to undergo the four-hour retraining or else face the risk of deactivation.

The retraining program entails a refresher course for riders, and requires them to wear a security vest with handles for passengers to hold on to while traveling.

“Hopefully, third week of June matapos na lahat. By third week or last week of June makapaglarga na,” said Royeca.

With stricter guidelines in place, Angkas will submit to the incoming Congress a new bill seeking to legalize motorcycles as a transport service.

“We hope to have a very healthy dialogue with the Committee on Public Services in Senate and the Committee on Transportation in Congress so that we can update them on a regular basis on the operations of the pilot program,” Royeca said.

“Hopefully, within six months, mapasa ‘yung bill bago matapos ‘yung pilot. ‘Yun ang ating hangarin at ambisyon. Hopefully, sana, makamit natin ‘yon,” he added.

Angkas has yet to pick a solid sponsor for the bill, but the company is optimistic that lawmakers will be open to the proposal.

“The idea here is to refine and enhance all of the implementing rules and regulations for the operations of the motorcycle taxi, so tuloy-tuloy lang ‘yung ating assessment, evaluation, at pagsa-study ng operations ng Angkas,” Royeca said.

Angkas clarified that even with more safety features now in place there are no plans to implement a fare increase at this point.

“Wala pong magbabago sa pamasahe sa Angkas. It will still be P50 for the first 2 kilometers and P10 per additional kilometer,” he said. —VDS, GMA News