Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte has called on motorcycle riders to wait for the official guidelines on motorcycle back-riding which is expected to be out soon by the national government’s Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF).

“Maghulat ta aning guidelines nga gina-ingon nila [National Task Force – NTF] sa back-riding. Dunay guidelines na mogawas, so kining guidelines atong hulaton because as I’ve said kaniadto pag sugod sa IATF, ang mga guidelines, mao na ang sundon sa tanang LGUs (Let us wait for the guidelines on back-riding. There will be guidelines that will come out. As I have said before when the IATF was established, the guidelines are to be followed by all LGUs),” Mayor Sara said over Davao City Disaster Radio in response to calls by netizens to allow back rides on motorcycles.

The ‘No back-ride Policy is a national government policy being implemented as a social distancing measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

During the ‘Laging Handa’ briefing on Saturday, June 20, 2020, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque revealed that the NTF will soon issue the guidelines on motorcycle back-riding.

Meanwhile, the 18th City Council on Tuesday passed a resolution supporting the national government in allowing back riding in motorcycle but such national policy should not only limit for family members as back riders but also for the public.

Second District Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang, the proponent of the resolution, said that this is to address the difficulty of finding public transportation under the general community quarantine (GCQ) and modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).

“The return of motorcycle as one of the modalities of public transportation considered as sustainable and predictable in terms of route availability opens the general public a choice to avail of and at the same time, propel economic activity for these drivers who long to recover from this pandemic,” the resolution reads. CIO