First of two elements
Jenifer Bosi normally wakes up as early as 4 am to organize for college.
To get to her 7 am class on time, she should already be aboard a tricycle a minimum of an hour earlier than or she must endure an hour-long journey from her residence in Barangay Tagga to her college in Barangay Caritan Sur. With out visitors, she lives solely 20 to half-hour away from college.
It’s a preview of the on a regular basis wrestle of commuters like her in Tuguegarao Metropolis.
Situated within the northern a part of the Philippines 12 hours away from capital Manila, Tuguegarao is prospering by way of each inhabitants and financial exercise, as evident in its bustling streets.
Based on the Philippine Statistics Authority, Tuguegarao had a inhabitants of 167,297 individuals in 2024, making it probably the most populous metropolis within the Cagayan Valley.
Because the regional heart, Tuguegarao has additionally been attracting buyers and welcoming new industries. Town recorded a P1.456-billion income as of 2022 and was reclassified from a 3rd to a second revenue class metropolis by the Division of Finance in 2024.
Nonetheless, like different creating cities, Tuguegarao shouldn’t be spared from the issues that include progress, reminiscent of visitors congestion — a rising wrestle that has clogged its roads in gridlock.
Tuguegarao’s visitors state of affairs
Day by day, Bosi, together with different commuters going to highschool or work from town’s japanese barangays, should move by way of the Pinacanauan Overflow Bridge to succeed in the city correct by way of tricycles, among the many main modes of transportation to get round Tuguegarao.
The overflow bridge is the quickest entry level to town heart for motorists coming from Japanese Tuguegarao, its neighboring city Peñablanca, and from the province of Isabela, therefore making it one of many traffic-prone areas within the metropolis.
But when the morning journey is already a problem, the after-school commute is as difficult.
Phoebe Agustin, additionally a university pupil, mentioned her journey residence takes a further 25 minutes in the course of the peak hours of 4 pm to 7 pm.
“For college students like me, the visitors is absolutely time-consuming and exhausting as a result of you must deal with the sheer variety of autos getting into and leaving Tuguegarao, particularly on Mondays and Fridays,” mentioned Agustin, who lives in Barangay Namabbalan Norte.
Bosi and Agustin each research at Cagayan State College (CSU) Andrews Campus.
For commuters, time spent in visitors is time wasted. However for Tuguegarao’s tricycle drivers, it means much less revenue to deliver residence to their households.
Jesus Sibal, a tricycle driver for 30 years, described how visitors impacts their livelihood.
“Throughout rush hour, when drivers may make good cash, that’s when there’s visitors. While you get caught, you’ll have a number of passengers, however you possibly can’t even transfer,” the 56-year-old mentioned in Filipino.
The wrestle is actual particularly for tricycle drivers like 58-year-old Florido Archibido, who has youngsters to ship to highschool.
On an everyday day, he takes residence a complete of P500, after deducting boundary and gasoline charges. Archibido mentioned this isn’t sufficient for his or her each day bills, which embrace the varsity allowance of his youngest youngster, a 3rd yr nursing pupil.
Worse, when heavy visitors hits town throughout fiestas and different particular events hosted by Tuguegarao, their revenue decreases by P100 to P200 a day.
“Kapag could estudyante ka at tricycle driver ka lang, mahirap. Mapipilitan kang mangutang pandagdag sa kita,” mentioned Archibido, who has been a tricycle driver for twenty years already.
(When you might have a baby in class and also you’re only a tricycle driver, it’s tough. You’ll be pressured to borrow cash simply to complement your revenue.)
Based on the Tuguegarao Metropolis Command Heart, among the many areas vulnerable to visitors congestion are the varsity belts. Tuguegarao is the area’s training hub, residence to 4 main universities reminiscent of CSU (which has two campuses, Andrews and Carig), St. Paul College Philippines, College of Saint Louis Tuguegarao, and College of Cagayan Valley.
Gridlock additionally occurs in different areas: alongside Calle Commercio on the city correct; alongside the roads close to Cagayan Valley Medical Heart, the most important public hospital within the area; and alongside the Balzain Freeway from Barangay Caritan going to Robinsons Place Tuguegarao.
TRAFFIC SPOTS. Calle Commercio (L) and Cagayan Valley Medical Heart (R) Images by Roland Andam Jr./Rappler
There are lots of components behind Tuguegarao’s visitors headache.
Unchanged structure, infrastructure points
First, Tuguegarao’s pueblo structure has remained principally unchanged since its institution within the 1720s. Based on the Cagayan Museum and Historic Analysis Heart (CMHRC), superimposing previous Spanish maps of the población onto present-day satellite tv for pc photos of town will affirm this.
During the last century, the roads have remained slender, with just one to 2 lanes, which has made it tough for town to accommodate the numerous enhance in autos.
That is additionally why, in response to the CMHRC, the tricycle, not the jeepney, beat the kalesa in reigning over Tuguegarao’s roads.
“Jeepneys are massive, and their routes in Tuguegarao would solely cowl brief distances. That’s impractical, and so they’ll simply develop into a much bigger explanation for visitors if extra jeeps substitute the kalesa,” CMHRC head researcher Jake Coballes advised Rappler in a mixture of English and Filipino.
Though jeepneys nonetheless function inside Tuguegarao, there are solely a restricted variety of routes devoted to them. They principally ferry college students touring between the 2 campuses of CSU: the Andrews campus in Barangay Caritan Sur and the Carig campus in Barangay Carig.
Jeepneys are extra frequent alongside routes that don’t traverse town’s inside roads, serving commuters touring between Tuguegarao and close by Southern Cagayan municipalities, together with Solana, Enrile, Tuao, Piat, and Sto. Nino, amongst others.
For long-distance journey to downstream Cagayan and different provinces, vans and buses are the first modes of transport. Taxis are additionally accessible; nonetheless, they’re much less frequent than different types of public transportation within the metropolis.
On prime of Tuguegarao’s already slender streets, the delayed completion of highway infrastructure tasks, reminiscent of drainage works, and the protracted development of recent bridges additionally contribute to town’s worsening visitors congestion.
For instance, the continued drainage system undertaking alongside Cagayan Valley Street in Barangay Carig Sur, which began in March 2023, is inflicting gridlock, particularly throughout rush hours, by rendering one of many 4 lanes nearly ineffective.
A lot of the tasks throughout the metropolis are applied by the Division of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Cagayan third District Engineering Workplace (C3DEO).
Tuguegarao Mayor Maila Ting-Que mentioned that a part of the issue is the DPWH’s lack of coordination with town authorities. She revealed that the C3DEO has been bypassing her workplace by instantly requesting a decision from town council to endorse the company’s tasks for implementation.
“Let’s be sincere, even only a easy present of respect to the LGU associate, they [DPWH] ought to already know this, seek the advice of town earlier than implementation. This enables us to test if tasks align with our growth plans and are environmentally sound,” Ting-Que mentioned in a mixture of English and Filipino in an August 5 Fb publish.
“However as a result of DPWH was so desirous to get funding, they took the shortcut. They didn’t seek the advice of us. They didn’t embrace us,” she added in her publish, calling out C3DEO over what she known as “blatant disregard” of official courtesy to her workplace as town mayor, who serves as each chairperson of the Metropolis Improvement Council (CDC) and the designated focal individual for undertaking coordination.
As an intervention, the CDC handed a decision on June 9 requesting that the C3DEO submit pertinent paperwork to the council and current data on the standing of its numerous tasks throughout the metropolis. A replica of the decision was transmitted to the DPWH Regional Workplace II (RO2) on June 20.
In a response letter dated June 23, DPWH RO2 Regional Director Mathias Malenab knowledgeable Ting-Que that that they had already reminded the C3DEO to watch the right protocol and preserve shut collaboration with the Workplace of the Metropolis Mayor.
“We’re likewise initiating a assessment of our inner processes to make sure that all future project-related communications, together with endorsements and coordination efforts, shall move by way of the Workplace of the Metropolis Mayor in a well timed and respectful method,” the letter additional learn.
Nonetheless, even with the CDC decision and prior communications between Ting-Que’s workplace and DPWH RO2, the mayor asserted that C3DEO continues to interrupt correct protocols.
The tricycle takeover
Tuguegarao’s highway community could not have modified a lot, however the variety of public tricycles and personal autos plying town’s streets has elevated considerably over time.
Information as of September 2025 from the Tuguegarao Metropolis Command Heart revealed {that a} each day common of 40,000 personal autos enter and exit town. Vehicles owned by metropolis residents are nonetheless not accounted for on this determine.
Moreover, there are presently over 8,000 tricycle models registered within the metropolis, in response to the Tuguegarao Tricycle Regulation Unit.
Throughout the Spanish colonial occasions, beginning within the 1720s, the kalesa was the king of Tuguegarao’s streets. Town’s horse-drawn carriages, which may accommodate as much as 10 individuals, additionally served as a faculty bus for college students.
It was not till the Seventies that Tuguegarao first witnessed tricycles plying its roads.
It began in an area welding store in Barangay Ugac Sur, the place Ambrosio Addun pioneered the preliminary body of Tuguegarao’s trendy tricycle. He conceptualized a singular blueprint and revolutionized the five-seater carriage, giving it its personal id.
As Tuguegarao’s inhabitants elevated, the demand for a extra environment friendly mode of transportation turned prevalent. The tricycle ultimately changed the kalesa because the city’s fundamental public mode of transportation within the Nineteen Nineties.
Other than being sooner, tricycles are additionally simpler to mass produce than horse-drawn carriages, whose upkeep is extra elaborate because it offers with grooming a residing factor.
At the moment, there are 37 tricycle operators and drivers associations in Tuguegarao, not together with the sub-TODAs, reminiscent of these stationed at business malls that aren’t but formally acknowledged.
With out their very own devoted parking, tricycle operators and drivers have had no selection however to occupy roadsides, sidewalks, and alleys to park their autos, obstructing roads and slowing down visitors.
To scale back the variety of tricycles on Tuguegarao’s roads each day, town authorities applied a coding scheme in Might 2020. Initially meant to curb the unfold of COVID-19, the system was ultimately continued even after the pandemic.
Rodolfo Baltazar, 60, a tricycle driver from Barangay Caggay for 30 years, lamented town’s coding system as unfair.
Underneath the present system, all personal automobiles are exempt whereas tricycles are restricted from metropolis roads a minimum of as soon as per week based mostly on their license plate colour:
| LICENSE PLATE COLOR | DAY PROHIBITED ON THE ROAD |
|---|---|
| Inexperienced | Monday |
| Blue | Tuesday |
| Purple | Wednesday |
| Orange | Thursday |
| Yellow | Friday |
On weekends, restrictions are based mostly on the tricycle’s plate quantity: these ending in 1-5 are allowed on Saturdays, whereas these ending in 6-0 are allowed on Sundays.
“4-wheel autos ought to have a coding system, too. It ought to be the identical for them as it’s for us tricycle drivers. Once we park on roadsides, we get caught and get a ticket instantly. However four-wheel drivers simply get away with it,” Baltazar, who additionally serves as chairman of the Cataggaman-Alimanao TODA (CATODA) Board of Trustees, mentioned in Filipino.
Jesus Sibal, 56, additionally a tricycle driver for greater than 30 years, shared the identical sentiment: “Kapag pinitpitan ka ng four-wheeler, papagilid ka. Kapag nabunggo kami, okay lang. Sila, kapag could galos lang, libo hinihingi sa amin, pinapagalitan pa.”
(If a four-wheeler honks, you must get out of the way in which. If we get hit, it’s like nothing occurred. But when they get a scratch, they ask for 1000’s of pesos and even scold us.)
Other than demanding equity in regulation, the tricycle drivers additionally hope that the everlasting parking house that was promised to them since 2022 will lastly materialize.
“I hope they can provide us a everlasting parking spot so we will lastly have some peace. It’s a problem to maintain altering parking spots; we’ve already been transferred forwards and backwards between a number of completely different terminals,” CATODA president Arnold Galano mentioned in Filipino. (To be concluded) – Rappler.com
NEXT: Half 2 | In Tuguegarao, ‘options’ to visitors woes make issues worse
Roland Andam Jr. is a BS Accountancy graduate from Cagayan State College-Andrews Campus. An Aries Rufo Journalism Fellow of Rappler for 2025, he was additionally the editor in chief of The CSU Communicator.
