The Colorum Mirror

Colorum tricycles in Iloilo City have long been treated as rogue elements in the streets — unregistered, untaxed, and unregulated. But if we stare into the mirror they hold up to government, what we see is not defiance, but deficiency. Their presence is less a rebellion and more a reflection of the gaping holes in the city’s transport planning.

The June 18 deadline for these informal tricycles to secure a franchise through a TODA is meant to clean up city roads and enforce the law. Compliance is, of course, important. But so is context. These colorum drivers are not mere violators; they are often last-mile saviors, making up for the gaps in the Local Public Transport Route Plan (LPTRP). Even Transportation and Traffic Management Office (TTMO) head Uldarico Garbanzos admitted that these unregistered tricycles thrive where formal services fail to reach — subdivisions, interior barangays, or nighttime shifts left uncovered by transport cooperatives.

And so, we ask: if they serve the people where official transport does not, why are they the first to be punished?

The city government has every right — even the responsibility — to regulate transport for safety, order, and sustainability. But regulation must be tempered with fairness. Has the city done a comprehensive socioeconomic profiling of these drivers? Have we looked into the reasons why many opted out of formal registration in the first place? Do they lack the money to process documents, or are the requirements too tedious or inconsistent? Do they fear being squeezed out by monopolistic TODAs or transport cooperatives?

If these questions remain unanswered, then the June 18 deadline risks becoming less a tool for order than an instrument of displacement. Hundreds of livelihoods hang in the balance — fathers, breadwinners, senior citizens who ride their tricycles not just for work, but survival.

Worse, we risk criminalizing those who have stepped in to serve unmet needs. The problem isn’t just colorum operations — it is a system that failed to fully map, listen to, and integrate the realities on the ground into policy. The LPTRP is not gospel. It must be dynamic, updated with input from the very people who live the daily chaos of local commute.

That is why the call for a ground-up approach to transport planning is urgent. It is time to shift from just policing violators to including stakeholders — especially those operating informally but filling real gaps. If the TTMO is sincere in listening to suggested new routes from these drivers, then it must go beyond press conferences and initiate genuine community consultations. Dialogue, not deadlines alone, fosters compliance.

But even as the city grapples with this challenge, a more complex one looms ahead.

What happens when e-trikes, e-bikes, and trisikads become even more common?

A crackdown on colorum tricycles today, without a comprehensive transport policy for non-motorized and low-emission vehicles, sets the stage for another crisis tomorrow. The electric mobility shift is happening — quietly, and in growing numbers — especially in subdivision areas where informal routes thrive. If Iloilo City doesn’t plan now, we may soon find ourselves impounding fleets of e-bikes driven by workers who simply needed to beat curfew, reach work, or bring home groceries.

There is still time to turn this moment into a model of inclusive governance.

Yes, register and regulate the tricycles. But don’t stop there. Roll out a transition program that helps informal drivers legally integrate into the system — with financial assistance, fast-tracked processing, and participatory route planning.

Revisit the LPTRP and open it to citizen feedback, especially from those who live beyond the coverage of jeepneys and buses. Don’t reduce the issue to colorum versus legal — that binary misses the bigger picture. This is not just about control, but coherence. Not just about order, but opportunity.

The colorum mirror, when held properly, reveals the fractures in our system and the faces of those left behind. Instead of shattering that mirror, maybe it’s time the city government looked closely — and changed the reflection.

The goal should not just be clean streets, but a just and inclusive transport future.