BAGUIO CITY – Food delivery riders are requesting designated parking spaces for their motorcycles along Session Road as some have been fined while making deliveries and pickups for the customers.
According to Jordan Ritumalta, he has been fined multiple times for delivering and picking up orders on Session Road, who has been a food delivery rider in Baguio City for over three years now.
“Nung binayaran ko na po siya, siningil po ako ng 150 that time. Sa kita namin sa isang araw, sabihin mo na dalawang deliveries na yun. Pero ngayon, ang alam ko ang minimum po na babayaran is 500. Before 150 lang, ngayon 500 na.”
[“When I paid for it, they charged me 150 pesos at that time. Considering our earnings in one day, let’s say that’s equivalent to two deliveries already. But now, what I know is that the minimum payment is 500 pesos. Before it was just 150, now it’s 500.”]
To avoid paying a 500-peso fine, he now leaves his motorcycle outside Session Road and walks to pick up delivery orders, as he would rather spend that money on gasoline than waste it on fines.
Another food delivery rider, John Laurence Cariño, also experiences the same case.
“Pag sa session road ang delivery namin, di na kami pumapasok ng session road. Pumaparada nalang kami dito sa baba. Kapag may deliver kami, inaakyat nalang po namin. Mahirap. Pero kasi sumusunod lang naman tayo sa patakaran ng Baguio. Mahirap din kasi lumabag, para hindi na ako maticketan.”
[“When our delivery is at Session Road, we don’t enter Session Road anymore. We just park down here. When we have a delivery, we just walk up. It’s difficult. But we’re just following Baguio’s policy. It’s also hard to violate it, so I just avoid getting ticketed.”
Since City Ordinance No. 66 states that motorcycles and bicycles are not allowed on Session Road, the riders are thus requesting designated parking spaces for their two-wheel vehicles along Session Road.
Although the Public Order and Safety Division (POSD) proposed the establishment of parking spaces for food delivery riders in 2019, the challenge lies in determining where to allocate the parking spaces.
As stated by Baguio City’s POSD Chief, Daryll Kim Longid, the riders should be provided with a sort of waiting area for the time being while it is not allowed for them to park along Session Road.
However, Longid also added about an observation that when the allocation is given to riders, there is a tendency for it to be abused, as the limitation on the number of motorcycles allowed to park in a certain area is not adhered to.
Currently, the Traffic Enforcement Unit of the Baguio City Police Office has not yet commented on this matter.
~Bonomar Apuyod Jr.~
