MANILA - (UPDATE) Grab Philippines on Thursday said it was 'not keen' on relaunching its motorcycle ride-hailing service GrabBike until the government finalized rules governing the feature.

Grab discontinued GrabBike in 2016 after transport authorities questioned its safety and cited the lack of permit for such service.

Angkas, meanwhile, pushed for the motorcycle taxi service and was granted a temporary permit to operate in May under a 6-month dry-run to asses the use of motorcycle taxis.

"We always have plans if the regulations are laid out properly... Our stance with the bikes, unless the regulations are clear, we're not that hot about entering it," Grab Philippines president Brian Cu told reporters.

When asked if Grab was open to acquiring Angkas, Cu said "right now it's not on the horizon because we have our own GrabBike service available in other markets. If the regulations are clear, the direction will be to relaunch GrabBike."

Angkas has a total of 27,000 drivers, while Grab's 2-wheeled logistics and food delivery arm has over 10,000 partner-drivers.

• Motorcycle taxis beat metro gridlocks, satisfy milk tea cravings

Grab said it also partnered with various firms to offer on-demand salon service, hotel booking, P2P bus advance ticketing and in-app video streaming, which will be available in the Philippines in September.

• Hotel bookings, video streaming coming to Grab soon