Drivers say no vaccine, no ride policy hard to implement

Several drivers said enforcing the “no vaccination, no ride” policy of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) starting Monday, January 17 will not be a breeze.

According to Oscar Oida’s “24 Oras” report on Friday, some taxi drivers said the policy will mean lesser passengers for them at a time when they are not earning as much.

“Isasakay ko kahit may vaccination o wala dahil wala ng pasahero. Kailangan ko talagang kumita dahil yung boundary, gasolina tumataas araw araw,” taxi driver Reynaldo Camillo said.

(I will let them board even if they were vaccinated or not because there were only a few passengers. I really need to earn money because of the boundary, and fuel prices increase every day.)

However, some taxi drivers said they must follow the protocols, as they will be penalized with higher fines for violating the policy.

“Pag hindi namin sinunod yung protocol, kasi kami rin mahihirapan eh. Malaki ang multa dyan eh, saan ka kukuha ng pambayad non lalo na ang kita ng taxi ngayon kakarampot,” Jimmy Ayog, another taxi driver, said.

(If we do not follow the protocol, we will also have a hard time. There is a huge fine if we violated the policy, where would we get the payment, especially since the income of a taxi driver is only small.)

Some jeepney drivers said the policy would cause inconvenience as some of the passengers will not board in the main terminal.

“Yung pasahero sa kalsada alangan namang titignan pa namin yun bago namin isakay eh nasa manibela kami, sila nasa likod eh paano yun,” a jeepney driver said.

(If we picked up the passenger along the road, we cannot be able to look at their vaccine cards. Because we were at the steering wheel, and they were at the back.)

“Hindi ako marunong tumingin ng peke at original na vaccine card,” taxi driver Rolando Nadal said.

(I do not know how to validate if the vaccine card is fake or original.) 

DOTr Road Transport Sector Assistant Mark Steven Pastor said drivers and operators are the ones who can be penalized for violating the “no vaccination, no ride” policy.

Pastor fines start from P1,000 to P10,000 depending on how many times the drivers and operators violated the policy.

He added that their franchise can be suspended depending on the gravity of the offense committed.

Meanwhile, passengers cannot be penalized for violating the public transport policy as they were not under the scope of the DOTr’s Department Order No. 2022-001.

Under the DOTr’s Department Order No. 2022-001, issued on January 11, 2022, access to public transportation is limited only to fully vaccinated individuals.

Vaccination status can be proven by either physical or digital copy of a local government unit-issued vaccine card, Department of Health-issued vaccine certification, or any Inter-Agency Task Force-prescribed document with valid government-issued ID with picture and address.

The Philippines on Friday logged 37,207 new COVID-19 cases, another highest daily tally since the start of pandemic, increasing the nationwide count to 3,129,512.—LDF, GMA News