Temporary regulation for ‘mercy trips’

Instead of apprehending the private vans that are fetching stranded persons from Manila to the provinces for a fee, the government should just temporarily regulate them to ensure the proper observance of public health, transportation, and trade and industry policies and protocols.

These vans are doing what the government should have been doing all along—local repatriation—so they are, in fact, extending public service. Faulting them for doing what the government cannot is highlighting our own shortcomings and getting away with it. They are not colorum modes of transport. They are “mercy trips.”

JONAS CABILES SOLTES
Sangguniang Bayan member
Tinambac, Camarines Sur