In placing Butuan City under General Community Quarantine(GCQ) last April and eventually raising it to Enhanced Community Quarantine (GCQ), certain restrictions were imposed within the city, including the No Backride Policy. One of the reasons behind its imposition is to keep all Butuanons safe by maintaining social distance not only in public places but also, when riding public and private vehicles.

It can't be denied the importance of maintaining social distance to keep away from the danger of COVID-19 but I believe that when you're with people, especially family members who live in the same house as you, isn't dangerous. When Butuan City was placed under ECQ, public utility vehicles are restricted with limited number of passengers allowed. This poses a great problem to those people, especially the frontliners in need of transportation. May I quote this open letter by Prince Niko:

An Open Letter To DOTr, LGU's and other concern agencies.

We know for a fact that abiding the rules is very crucial in this difficult times and we are trully grateful for your effort to make our city safe, but the "No Back Ride Policy" is somewhat one-sided on our part, as one of those individuals who rely on motorcycle as our means of transportation, we cannot risk our partners/family to ride on a public utility vehicle coz it might increase the risk of being expose to the covid-19, because we can't identify if those people who are in the same vehicle our family's in, is a carrier of the disease or not. It is much safer to personally drive my family in this times of crisis rather than ride a public vehicle with a very high chances of risk. Thus I'm appealing to your good office to consider us, motorcycle users, to personally deliver our family members to their destination, with identification that we are family related. Thank you

With this, I am initiating a petition to lift the NO BACKRIDE POLICY and allow 1 family member as backride.