𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝑶𝑻𝑹’𝒔 𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝑻𝑵𝑪 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑴𝑻𝑷𝑷 𝒐𝒏𝒃𝒐𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔
We strongly welcome the Department of Transportation – Philippines directive requiring Transport Network Companies (TNCs) and Motorcycle Taxi Platform Providers (MTPPs) to immediately cease onboarding activities, particularly those operating without active franchises or engaging in on-the-spot, same-day onboarding.
This action is long overdue. What we are seeing is not mere overboarding. It is industrial-scale circumvention of regulatory limits. The existence of rider submissions that balloon to hundreds of thousands, despite allocations that are only a fraction of that, exposes a deliberate strategy to bypass caps rather than comply with them.
Such practices make a mockery of the regulatory framework and place compliant operators, as well as the riding public, at a clear disadvantage.
In this light, a full suspension of onboarding is not only warranted, it is the minimum corrective step needed to stop further distortion in the system.
We call on the Department of Transportation and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board – LTFRB to go beyond temporary measures and implement a decisive enforcement roadmap. This must include clear sanctions against operators that have treated rider caps as optional, exploited loopholes, and continued expanding despite repeated warnings and existing limits.
We likewise support the pronouncement of Secretary Giovanni Lopez to pursue accountability not only among TNCs and MTPPs, but also among current and former DOTr and LTFRB officials whose inaction or tolerance may have enabled these large-scale violations to persist.
At the same time, enforcement must be targeted. Drivers who were onboarded through these questionable schemes should not bear the consequences of decisions made at the platform level. Government must ensure, through coordinated intervention, that their livelihoods are protected and that they do not lose even a single day of income as accountability measures are enforced.
Ultimately, this is a test of regulatory resolve. The issue is no longer ambiguity in the rules. It is the blatant and calculated disregard of them. The public now expects that those who pushed the limits the furthest will be the ones held to account the most.
