Uber, GrabCar foe wants TRO extended

A TRANSPORT group has asked a Quezon City court to extend the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by another court on app-enabled transport services, as it maintained that the TRO should apply to existing operations of Uber and GrabCar.

In a motion filed last week,  Angat Tsuper Samahan ng Mga Tsuper at Operator ng Pilipinas Genuine Organization (Stop and Go) said the TRO became “useless” after Judge Santiago Arenas of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 217 clarified the order in media interviews and later inhibited himself from the case before the holiday break.

Arenas then explained that the 20-day TRO he issued covered only the acceptance and processing of applications from operators classified as TNVS or transportation network vehicle services.

The case was reraffled to Judge Luisito Cortez of Branch 84 after Arenas inhibited himself.

Since Arenas’ TRO stopped the enforcement of the government order and circulars that allowed the existing operation of TNVS, “[it] applies and covers the existing operation of Uber and GrabCar [units] and not only future applications, plain and simple,” Stop and Go said in its motion.

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB)  has suspended the processing of applications of Uber and GrabCar units, pending a clarification from the court on the TRO’s coverage.

“We did not accept and we did not process applications in deference to the court order,” LTFRB Chair Winston Ginez earlier said.

According to board member Ariel Inton, there were close to 10,000 pending applications when the TRO was issued.

The LTFRB website showed that 4,032 applications had been granted provisional authority. No franchise has been issued to a TNVS. -Erika Sauler