Christmas came early for some 2,000 delivery riders in Cebu City as Mayor Raymond Garcia pledged to cover their accident insurance, waive their business permit fee for 2025 and grant an amnesty on unpaid penalties required to obtain a transportation license to operate in the city.
Garcia delivered the pledge during a dialogue with over 250 motorcycle riders of food delivery app Grab and Food Panda, who had reached out to his office to intervene on their working conditions.
The accident insurance and the business permits waiver were among the requests of delivery riders who have recently won a PHP7.4-million suit before the National Labor Relations Commission against the food delivery app Food Panda. The compensation, however, is now on hold after the delivery company filed an appeal with a higher court.
“I’m happy to provide an immediate relief for the delivery riders while their legal victory is on appeal,” Garcia announced. “These are hardworking individuals trying to make an honest living on their motorcycles, most of whom are the sole breadwinners in their families. These are small tokens of appreciation.”
He also let go the payment of any outstanding penalties needed to obtain an ID from Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO), which is a requirement for all motorcycle-based business in the city but deemed by riders as an additional financial burden.
Garcia also announced that he and Council member Jun Alcover, who was at the dialogue organized by Aksyon Na Ta grassroots organization, have been negotiating with a local insurance underwriter to provide accident insurance for the thousands of habal-habal drivers in the city. But hearing directly from the delivery riders prompted him to include them in the accident insurance coverage, which he plans to pay with his own personal funds.
“I am not going to ask for the city to pay for this. I will pay for it from my own pocket,” Garcia said.
“Consider those three things done,” he confidently told delivery riders, whose request for the city government’s intervention will be officially heard in an executive session of the Sangguniang Panglusod on November 20.
In addition, he pledged to convene as early as next week a council for motorcycle riders, which include habal-habal riders and now also the delivery riders, to look into issues that affect their operations in the city. He appointed delivery riders Abraham Lanurias, president of Food Panda Riders Union, and Grab counterpart Noahde Vayson to represent the delivery riders on the council.
Garcia said the agenda of the first meeting of the motorcycle riders will include requiring delivery platform companies to obtain a business permit and to have a physical office in Cebu City. It will also tackle “shadow banning” or placing restrictions on delivery bookings which negatively impact the income of delivery riders.
“I agree 100 percent on the issues you brought up today,” the mayor said, as he also pledged to initiate a dialogue with delivery platform companies. “I will invite them here to sit down and have a dialogue with us and talk about these other issues and hopefully find a solution that’s beneficial to all of you.”
