El Nido eyes e-bikes as main transport mode

PALAWAN, Philippines – The municipal government of El Nido wants to promote the use of electric bikes as an eco-friendly main transportation mode in keeping with its designation as a protected area.

“We are promoting e-bikes as an alternative to usual vehicles emitting carbon and producing noise,” Mayor Nieves Rosento said in an interview recently.

“Actually, we have two e-bikes which we use in patrolling and there’ll be 4 more arriving.”

Rosento said they asked an e-bike manufacturer to design an e-tricycle to “gradually phase out” the conventional tricycle in the town.

Municipal Administrator RJ de la Calzada said each e-tricycle is sold at around P200,000 to P300,000, depending on the design, and tricycle drivers could avail it at a loan basis, payable within more or less 5 years.

“It could be through a rent-to-own scheme,” he said in a separate interview.

Rosento said the municipal council is deliberating a proposed ordinance and developing a phase-out plan to back up the proposed policy.

“If we observe a tricycle appears to be obsolete and no longer passes the standard, then that’s the time we will require the owner to turn to e-tricycle,” Rosento added. – Rappler.com