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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Saturday, May 6, 2017
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BACOLOD City – A transport group lauded the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) for planning to offer a free road safety course for all public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers.
Negros Occidental PUV drivers will certainly benefit from the training, according to Diego Malacad, secretary-general of the United Negros Drivers and Operators Center (Undoc).
But Malacad said they worry that some drivers’ lack of basic education would hinder them from passing the road safety course.
“It’s a problem right now,” he said. “LTFRB’s module is so modern [drivers] who have not gone to primary school may not be able to catch up.”
Malacad said they also fear the discrimination of PUV drivers from the provinces.
The road safety course may tentatively start in June.
Lasting for only two days, the training will use modules on identifying road signage and other basic safety rules when driving a PUV.
After the training, the drivers will be given an examination.
If they pass, the trainee PUV drivers will be given an identification card that they may post on their windshield. Their names will also be included in the LTFRB database for monitoring purposes.
Meanwhile those who will fail will be given the chance to retake the examination but will not be allowed to drive until they pass.
The Undoc leader suggested that drivers who lacked primary education be made to undergo an alternative learning system (ALS) through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
The LTFRB might get a “headache” if it does not introduce ALS along with the road safety course, Malacad stressed.
“We haven’t received any memo on the [training] yet, but we are telling the LTFRB in advance that we are ready to defend our members who [been] in [the] PUV service since they were young,” he said./PN
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