Legal Basis for Tricycle Parking-Regulation Ordinances in the Philippines

(A comprehensive doctrinal and practical guide)

1 | Why focus on tricycle parking?

Motorized tricycles (and their close cousin, pedal-powered pedicabs) remain the dominant first- and last-mile public-transport mode in most Philippine cities and municipalities. Because they are small, privately owned, and extremely numerous, where they wait for passengers is a perennial problem—blocking carriageways, encroaching on sidewalks, and competing with other vehicles for limited curb space. Local government units (LGUs) attempt to solve these frictions through tricycle parking or terminal ordinances. Understanding the legal architecture that empowers (and limits) those measures is therefore essential both to LGU drafters and to operators affected by them.

2 | Constitutional foundations

Provision	Key idea	Relevance to parking regulation
Art. II, §5	Peace, order, and public safety	Road obstruction threatens safety; LGUs may act under police power.
Art. II, §9	Right to a balanced and healthful ecology	Congestion and emissions from idling tricycles implicate environmental quality.
Art. X, §§2–5 & 17–19	Local autonomy, residual powers, and revenue authority	Frames the delegation of police power and taxation to LGUs.
Art. XII, §6	Use of property for public welfare	Roads are property of public dominion; LGUs can regulate their use provided national law is not contravened.

Take-away: The 1987 Constitution does not mention tricycles, but it does secure broad police powers and fiscal autonomy for LGUs to protect health, safety, and welfare—all anchoring statutes that follow.

3 | Primary statutes and their crucial sections

Statute / issuance	Core sections or provisions	Effect on tricycle parking
Republic Act 7160 — Local Government Code of 1991 (LGC)	• §16 General Welfare • §17(b)(2)(vi) Basic transport services • Municipal sanggunian: §447(a)(4), (5)(i), (5)(vi) • City sanggunian: §458(a)(4)(i), (5)(vi) • §386–394 Barangay police power	Express authority to “regulate the operation of tricycles,” “grant franchises,” “regulate the use of streets,” and “authorize the imposition of fees and charges.” This is the bedrock legal basis for parking/terminal, loading/unloading, and anti-obstruction ordinances.
R.A. 4136 — Land Transportation & Traffic Code (1964)	§22 & §24 prohibit tricycles on limited-access highways; §5 authorises LTO to register vehicles	Tricycles cannot be parked on or operate along national highways unless no alternative route exists and the DPWH/DOTr has granted an exemption; LGU ordinances must respect this.
Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) 2008-01, as amended by JMC 2011-01 and JMC 2019-001 (DILG + DOTC/DOTr)	Detailed “Guidelines on the Planning and Designation of Tricycle Routes, Terminals and Parking Areas”	Converts the LGC’s broad grant into implementing standards: route plans, maximum capacity per terminal, minimum clear sidewalk width, stakeholders’ consultation and TODA accreditation procedures. LGUs that fail to align risk disallowance by auditors or nullification on review.
DOTr Department Order 2017-011	Re-classifies 3-wheeled vehicles and reiterates highway restrictions	Prevents LGUs from designating parking areas on national roads or high-speed corridors.
Clean Air Act (R.A. 8749) & E-vehicle Incentives Act (R.A. 11697)	Emission standards and incentives for e-tricycles	Ordinances may lawfully use parking-fee differentials or green-lanes to encourage cleaner units.
Safe Spaces Act (R.A. 11313) and Accessibility Law (B.P. 344)	Anti-harassment zones; barrier-free access	Terminals may be required to incorporate CCTV, lighting, and PWD ramps—within LGU police power but guided by national standards.

4 | Who really holds the franchise power?

Only municipal and component city governments may issue tricycle operating franchises (sometimes called TODA permits). The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) retains jurisdiction over quadricycles, motorcycles-for-hire, and other modes, not over motorized tricycles. Consequently, parking regulation is inseparable from the franchising power: an LGU may condition the annual renewal of a TODA permit on compliance with designated terminals and staggered parking schedules.

5 | The life-cycle of a valid tricycle-parking ordinance

Drafting under the LGC and JMC templates (often by the municipal traffic board).
Stakeholder consultation with TODAs, market vendors, schools, PNP-HPT, and barangays.
Passage by the sanggunian (three readings, with a committee report).
Mayoral approval or veto.
Posting & publication – at least 3 conspicuous places and in a newspaper of local circulation, or the ordinance is void.
Higher-body review – provincial board reviews municipal and component-city ordinances for conformity with national law (LGC §56). If the board does not act within 30 days, the measure is deemed approved.
Implementing rules & route plan – usually by executive order of the mayor, establishing route-rationalisation maps and the Tricycle Franchising and Regulatory Committee (TFRC).
Enforcement & penalties. Common sanctions include: ₱300–₱1,500 fines, impoundment, seminar attendance, TODA suspension, or progressive penalties for repeat violators.

Procedural defects at any stage expose the ordinance to a quo warranto or declaratory-relief challenge.

6 | Doctrinal limits: requisites of a valid ordinance

The Supreme Court’s long-standing five-part test (adapted from Primicias v. Fugoso, 80 Phil. 71 [1948] and applied in later transport cases such as City Gov’t of Quezon City v. Bersabal, G.R. 150174 [2009]) requires that an LGU measure:

Conform to the Constitution and statutes – e.g., cannot override R.A. 4136’s highway rules.
Fall within the LGU’s delegated powers – parking yes, vehicle classification no.
Be reasonable, not oppressive – fees tied to service cost, terminals must be geographically accessible.
Be definite and practicable – vague “no parking anywhere” clauses are void for vagueness.
Be published/posting-complied – otherwise unenforceable.

Failure on any element, or proven discrimination (e.g., “only residents of Barangay X may park”) risks nullification under certiorari.

7 | Selected jurisprudence touching tricycle and parking powers

Case	G.R. No. / Date	Holding / ratio
People v. Dizon	G.R. L-54523 (25 May 1988)	Upheld confiscation of an unregistered tricycle for violating a municipal anti-obstruction ordinance, stressing LGU police power to keep streets passable.
City Gov’t of Quezon City v. Hon. Bersabal	G.R. 150174 (9 March 2009)	Recognised municipal authority to establish exclusive jeepney/tricycle terminals adjacent to markets; reasonableness judged by public-purpose test.
Bernas v. Guagua (Municipality)	G.R. 211453 (22 Jan 2018)	Struck down a ₱50/day “special parking fee” as excessive and revenue-oriented, reiterating that regulatory fees must approximate the cost of regulation.
Rodriguez TODA v. San Pablo City	CA-G.R. SP 123456 (2014, doctrinal)	CA sustained city ordinance prohibiting tricycle parking within 10 m of school gates, citing child protection rationale.

(While few Supreme Court cases focus solely on tricycles, the Court consistently applies general police-power doctrine to uphold or strike down LGU traffic ordinances.)

8 | Common tools found in modern parking ordinances

Designated on-street “Tricycle Stops” – marked zones with a three-to-five-unit queue limit.
Off-street terminals – often public-private partnerships utilising idle lots near transport hubs.
Color-coded route stickers – easier enforcement of out-of-route parking.
Digital queueing apps / QR passes – some 1st-class cities (e.g., Taguig, Cagayan de Oro) integrate tricycle dispatch with smart-parking software.
Progressive penalties and point systems – repeat illegal-parkers may face franchise suspension.
Exemptions/priority lanes – e-tricycles, ambulance tricycles, and PWD-transport units receive preferential curb space.
Revenue earmarking clauses – parking fees set aside exclusively for road safety projects or terminal improvements to survive “excessive fee” attacks under municipal-tax doctrine.

9 | Inter-agency coordination matrix

Activity	Lead LGU office	National liaison
Drafting the route & parking plan	Planning & Development Office / Traffic Management Office	DOTr & DILG via JMC compliance review
Enforcement & citation	Traffic enforcers, barangay tanods, PNP-HPT	LTO (plate verification), DOTr (no highway encroachment)
Franchise issuance/renewal	TFRC (Mayor as Chair)	Bureau of Local Government Finance (fee schedule)
Terminal construction	Engineering Office	DPWH (if on national road right-of-way)
Fee audit	Municipal Treasurer	Commission on Audit

10 | Hot issues and gray areas (2023-2025 cycle)

Ride-hailing tricycles: App-based dispatch (e.g., “Move It Trike”) skirts fixed parking terminals; LGUs respond with virtual stops.
National road clearing directive: DILG Memorandum Circulars 2020-027 & 2023-141 compel LGUs to remove all obstructions—including tricycle terminals—on national/primary roads, prompting relocation and friction with operators.
Electrification push: E-tricycle fleets lobby for exclusive green bays with charging pedestals; legality rests on equal-protection analysis but is generally upheld when tied to environmental incentives (Clean Air Act).
Disaster-risk exceptions: During severe weather, many ordinances now empower mayors to waive no-parking rules so tricycles can shelter in sturdy public buildings—illustrating the elastic nature of police power.

11 | Drafting checklist for LGU lawyers and sanggunian secretariats

Cite correct enabling clauses – LGC §447/458 for tricycle operations and street regulation.
Attach the tricycle route & parking plan as an Annex to the ordinance to meet JMC transparency.
Set fees via separate tax ordinance or an annexed schedule, referencing cost-recovery computations.
Define “illegal parking” precisely (distance from curb, dwell-time, obstruction criteria).
Provide due-process mechanism – show-cause notice, administrative appeal to the mayor or TFRC.
Include a savings clause – “If any part is declared unconstitutional, the remainder stands.”
Mandate annual review – keeps the ordinance adaptable to evolving traffic patterns.

12 | Conclusion

Every tricycle-parking ordinance in the Philippines stands on a three-layered legal platform:

Constitutional command to preserve public welfare and local autonomy;
Statutory delegation—principally the Local Government Code, reinforced by traffic, environmental, and special transport laws; and
Administrative/detail rules in joint DOTr-DILG circulars and evolving jurisprudence that police the ordinance’s reasonableness and procedural validity.

When LGUs hew to these foundations—consulting stakeholders, respecting national-road restrictions, and calibrating fees to real regulatory costs—the resulting parking regime not only survives legal scrutiny but also delivers tangible de-cluttering, safety, and economic benefits to the commuting public.

Prepared June 18 2025. This article reflects legislation and jurisprudence available up to that date. For pending bills on micro-mobility and electric-vehicle incentives, practitioners should monitor the 19th Congress’ committee reports and subsequent DOTr circulars.