By Alexandria Dennise San Juan
Motorycle ride-hailing firm Angkas explained that ownership issues surrounding the firm had already been "rectified," amid concerns raised by government regulators that the company might have violated constitutional restrictions that cap foreign ownership in some businesses in the country.
Angkas chief transport advocate George Royeca told reporters he currently owns 60 percent of the company, which settled the foreign ownership issue.
Citing Securities and Exhange Commission (SEC) records, the inter-agency technical working group (TWG) monitoring the motorycle taxi pilot implementation earlier said that DBDOY Inc., which operates Angkas, is "99 percent foreign-owned."
According to the TWG, 99 percent of Angkas is currently owned by Singaporean Angeline Tham, a former executive of ride-sharing company Grab.
But Royeca explained that Angkas had already took steps to resolve the foreign ownership issue when it was tackled in senate and congressional hearings before.
"Three years ago, there's still no regulation on this. Everything was an app, and as an app, there's no restriction. This was taken up already during the senate and congressional hearings and we've already made the necessary steps toward this," he said.
Royeca said official records are not updated yet due to operational lag, but that they will be eventually.
The Angkas official added that ownership restrictions are not addressed by the guidelines for the motorycle taxi pilot run, but said that these will be needed once the law legalizing their operations is passed.
"Right now ownership is not part of the guidelines, both the original and the new guidelines. That was not included as part of the requirement, but then, we know, if the law will be passed, it is definitely required," Royeca said.
Angkas is currently participating in the extended implementation of the pilot run for motorycle taxis along with new players JoyRide and Move It.
The results of the study conducted on the extended test run, which is set to end on March 23, will be submitted by the TWG to Congress to aid them in crafting laws for the possible legalization of motorcycle-taxis in the country.