Pagbutlak

The UP Visayas administration on Wednesday, September 25, announced that it will only permit four-wheeled public utility vehicles inside the university to transport passengers to and from the UP Visayas academic zone.

The plan was revealed by Ms. Melany Calcaben, head of the Administrative and Transportation Section of the Campus Development and Maintenance Office (CDMO) during the Town Hall Meeting organized by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Administration to discuss transportation, stray animals, and waste management concerns in UPV at 1:00 PM today at the Conference Room, New Administration Building.

“The UPV New Academic Zone is connected to the new route for public transit, which is being made possible by the University of the Philippines Visayas. Tricycles operating on that route run in extremely high danger of collision due to the steep elevation. Therefore, the University decided to only permit 4-wheeled public utility vehicles to transport passengers to and from the new academic zone after consulting with its […] staff and campus administrator,” the presentation reads.

Based on the initial route plan, the proposed route is a loop route inside the university that has a jump off point at the New Administration Building and will transport passengers to the School of Technology Building, Philippine Genome Center, Regional Research Center, dormitory and staff houses, and the Main Library.

The administration cited the actual route survey and said that the existing route, operated by BSUTODA, is not suitable for tricycles as it “jeopardizes the safety of the passengers due to the topographic condition of the university.”

According to the UPV admin, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) recommended the UPV Miagao Campus Loop with 10 PUJ Class 1 units and calculated that each to have 16 trips each day based on the 2022-2023 enrollment data.

The LTFRB will convene in the first week of October to deliberate on the proposal.

Rey Mark Paran is a third-year statistics student at the Department of Physical Sciences and Mathematics. He became a member of Pagbutlak during his first year and was subsequently appointed as its editor. Now in his third year, Rey Mark still serves as Pagbutlak’s editor-in-chief.