Senator JV Ejercito is seeking to criminalize the overloading of public utility vehicles and to impose stiffer penalties on PUV operators violating the prescribed maximum capacity of vehicles as stated in the law.
Ejercito filed the Anti-Overloading Act of 2017 (Senate Bill No. 1446) in line with the celebration of the 4th UN Global Road Safety Week.
The legislator said that this measure should prevent freak accidents, citing the overloaded bus that fell into a 100-feet ravine in Nueva Ecija last month.
“We have to update and strictly implement the law because in reality, almost all public utility vehicles have a habit of overloading vehicles at the expense of passengers’ comfort and safety. We should be strict on these particularly for vehicles traversing mountainous passes,” the lawmaker said.
Ejercito’s Anti-Overloading Bill is proposing for a steep increase in penalties – 50,000 pesos including suspension of franchise for the first offense; 250,000 pesos including suspension of franchise for the second offense; and 1 Million pesos and revocation of franchise for the third offense.