If you have traveled by public land transportation, you might have noticed that the facilities are not really so good. Some even stinks. So this is a most welcome news for travelers; There’s a pending bill in Congress aiming to have an improved and cleaner terminal facilities. Senate Bill No. 1749 or will otherwise be known as the “Act to Improve Land Transportation Terminals, Stations, Stops, Rest Areas, and Roll-On/Roll-Off (RoRo) Terminals”.
Senate Bill 1749
This act directly points to the administrators, operators, and owners of land transportation terminals, RoRo stations, rest areas, stations, and stops to enhance their equipment and facilities. Aside from requiring them to have clean facilities they should also provide Internet access for free to their commuters. This bill further requires that they should have facilities that are hygienic and sanitary. Meanwhile, the free Internet falls under Republic Act No. 109209 or otherwise known as “Free Internet Access in the Public Places Act.” This is under the national Law’s Section III which states that the DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology) in coordination with the DOTr (Department of Transportation) that will make sure land transportation terminals are given free access of the Internet.
Other Bill Requirements
Since this is dedicated on making the establishment cleaner, it will mean having better amenities plus more hygienic comfort rooms and proper ventilation. The water system should work properly and the flush system should be working well. There should also be breastfeeding facility.
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Penalty
If an administrator, owner or operator of the terminal will fail to comply within the sanitary standards set for the facilities, they will have to pay a fine of Php5K for a day of violation. This means that should they fail for one week they will be paying a fine of Php35K. If they also fail to abide to the collection of fees prohibition, there will be another Php5k fine.
When will this become a Law?
The bill was adopted by Congress and sent to the Office of the President last March 21, 2019. If after 30 days and the President hasn’t signed this into a law, it will automatically lapse. Once this happens, the terminal owners, administrators, and officers will have enough time to provide what they are required to provide their commuters or they would face the consequences and worse, pay the corresponding fines.
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How do you feel about this new bill? Don’t you think it’s about time the terminals become not just beautiful to look at but sanitary as well? The public, most especially the ones who are frequently traveling by these terminals will surely welcome this good news. You can say that it’s just about time that we make our terminals presentable.