Well, this definitely isn’t a good look for the underground motorbike ride-hailing industry.
In a Facebook post, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) traffic chief Bong Nebrija shared that agency enforcers recently apprehended a habal-habal rider along EDSA. A distressed passenger revealed that she was being charged an absurd amount for a trip from Monumento.
What kind of rate are we talking about here? The passenger was being charged P50...per kilometer.
“‘Sumakay po ako galing Monumento, ang sabi po sa akin ay P50 pero ngayon po eh sinisingil ako ng P250,’” Nebrija said, narrating the conversation between the habal-habal rider and his passenger after they were caught.
“‘Sabi ng habal-habal rider, ‘Tama sabi ko P50 pero per kilometer yun eh five kilometro galing Monumento kaya P250.’”
Yikes.
Nebrija is pleading with commuters to stop booking underground habal-habal rides. He says there’s no chance the illegal industry will disappear if commuters keep patronizing it.
Some say the underground ride-hailing scene was born out of necessity—a product of a public-transportation system that’s been lacking even before the pandemic. Regardless, it’s incidents like this that are driving authorities to work double-time in cracking down on the industry. How often do you think habal-habal customers are faced with this situation?
