Malacañan Palace says tricycles can travel on national highways for now

Now you can attach a sidecar to your motorcycle and take it on national highways. Malacañan Palace has just announced that motorcycles with sidecars will be allowed to travel along national highways. In a press briefing earlier today, Presidential Spokesperson, Harry Roque, said that a new policy in place now allow motorcycles with sidecars to travel on national highways.

"Nagkaroon na po ng bagong polisiya, pinapayagan na po ngayon ang mga sidecars sa national highways. Iyan po ay para maibasan yung kakungalan sa transportasyon ngayong nag-GCQ na at MGCQ na sa maraming areas. (A new policy has just been introduced allowing sidecars to travel on national highways. This was done in order to ease the transportation shortages in areas that are now under GCQ and MGCQ.)," said Roque.

Roque did not specify what the new policy says or which agency it's from. It’s likely that it has yet to be published or may be an upcoming memorandum from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) or Malacañan Palace.

A couple of days ago, DILG Secretary, Eduardo Año, suggested riders attach a sidecar to their motorcycles in order to bring their relatives or loved ones to work. The comment was in response to questions about whether backriding on motorcycles will be allowed for persons from the same household. Riders countered that attaching a sidecar would make the motorcycle a tricycle, which is banned on national roads.

Año’s agency released Memorandum Circular 2020-036 a few months ago, threatening Local Government Units (LGUs) with sanctions for failure to comply.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has stayed firm on their stand against backriding on motorcycles as it goes against the prescribed social distancing protocols. Tricycles, however, have been allowed to operate in some areas again, provided they only carry one passenger.

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