Yearender: Traffic solutions high on MMDA’s priorities

MANILA, Philippines – The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) was an agency rocked by leadership changes that was caused by politics and the presidential polls last May.

Its former chairman, Bayani Fernando, who ran the agency for a long time, bolted from the then administration party Lakas and resigned in November 2009 to ran as vice president of Sen. Richard Gordon’s Bagumbayan party.

Both Fernando and Gordon, who was the party’s presidential bet, did not make the cut on election day.

With Fernando’s resignation, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appointed former Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Oscar Inocentes as MMDA chairman.

Inocentes, a member of the Lakas party, continued the implementation of the MMDA’s projects that were started by Fernando.

Among these were the clearing of sidewalks of illegal vendors, the clearing of waterways and esteros of garbage and tree-planting projects in tune with the agency’s pro-environment campaign.

In March, the MMDA was faced with the threat of having its operations disrupted after the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) issued a garnishment order on several of the agency’s bank accounts following its alleged failure to settle P120 million in tax obligations.

Following a review made by the BIR, the MMDA’s tax liabilities were lowered to just 25 million from P116.4 million and the garnishment order was lifted.

The BIR also approved a compromised agreement with the MMDA to have the payments made in three installments.

Last June, the MMDA also launched an intensive anti-littering drive in Metro Manila after the operations of flood pumping stations was affected by the volume of garbage that gets trapped in drainage inlets.

According to the MMDA, with garbage clogging the drainage inlets, the efficiency of the pumping stations is reduced to 70 percent.

The agency also installed 20 Internet-protocol closed-circuit television (IP-CCTV) cameras in 20 of its 25 main pumping stations to provide real time monitoring of the flood situation.

Traffic management, particularly along EDSA, only became its priority following the order of then newly-elected President Aquino to go the traffic jams along Metro Manila’s major roads, go after motorists who ‘counter-flow’ and those who illegally use sirens and blinkers to cut through traffic.

In one of his final proposals as MMDA chief, Inocentes pushed for the removal of ‘window’ hours for vehicles covered by the Unified Vehicle Volume Reduction Program (UVVRP) or the ‘number coding’ scheme.

Inocentes said removing the window hours between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. would greatly relieve the problem of traffic volume. At the moment, only Makati City, Malabon and Las Piñas do not allow vehicles banned for the day to pass through their streets from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Inocentes has also proposed that public utility buses be again covered by the UVVRP since more and more commuters are taking the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and the Light Rail Transit (LRT).

According to the MMDA, there are approximately 4,000 buses plying EDSA and other major roads each day.

Inocentes added that the re-inclusion of buses in the implementation of the UVVRP will also complement the MMDA’s Organized Bus Route (OBR) program, which seeks to limit buses on EDSA through scheduled fielding of buses from common terminals.

Unfortunately, the proposal to have the coding ‘window’ hours for number coded vehicles was scrapped, was never tackled by the Metro Manila Council (MMC), the policy-making body of the MMDA, which is composed of the 17 mayors of Metro Manila.

A new leadership

However, the proposal to have public utility buses re-included in the UVVRP was later approved by the MMC.

This decision by the MMC would prove to test the leadership acumen of former Tagaytay City mayor Francis Tolentino, who took over as MMDA chairman last July 27.

Tolentino assured that the MMDA would use “civil will” in dealing with sidewalk vendors, motorists and operators of public utility vehicles, an approach that was totally different from Fernando’s gung-ho style.

He said the agency decided to strictly enforce the UVVRP after discovering that out of the 8,897 exemptions to the number coding program granted to motorists for June to September this year, 6,393 were secured by government officials and employees for their own private vehicles.

Tolentino initially said lawmakers using vehicles bearing the ‘7’ and ‘8’ protocol license plates, which were used by senators and congressmen, are not exempted from the UVVRP.

He said the owners of these license plates should still attach the regular or control license plates issued by the Land Transportation Office at the back of the vehicles. Enforcers will simply have to check the license plates at the back and see if these are coded based on the ‘ending’ number of the license plate.

Surprisingly, however, just a few days after making the announcement, the MMDA retreated on its previous position and announced that the protocol plates ‘7’ and ‘8’ are still exempted from the UVVRP.

Crackdown on colorum

Last August, the MMDA geared-up for a head-on clash with operators of buses plying the EDSA route when it started with the Land Transportation, Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) an inventory of all public utility buses currently plying EDSA as part of a combined inter-agency drive against ‘colorum’ buses.

The MMDA estimates that there are at least 13,000 colorum buses or those operating without franchises now plying EDSA and other major Metro Manila roads.

Tolentino said the crackdown on colorum buses and other PUVs along EDSA and along other major roads in Metro Manila as part of the agency’s ongoing drive to ease traffic congestion.

While trying to weed-out colorum buses off EDSA, Tolentino also actively pursued it’s anti-littering drive following the re-implementation of MMDA Regulation No. 96-009 or the Metro-wide anti-littering law and the formation of sidewalk clearing teams that are on duty round-the-clock.

In October, Tolentino proposed that the return of the “odd-even” scheme to cover private vehicles along EDSA.

Under the number coding scheme, city and provincial buses whose license plate numbers end in 1 and 2 are banned from using EDSA and major roads on Mondays; 3 and 4 (Tuesdays); 5 and 6 (Wednesdays); 7 and 8 (Thursdays) and 9 and 0 (Fridays).

Head-on clash with bus operators

News of the re-imposition of the UVVRP on buses along EDSA was not received well by the majority of bus operators as they staged a strike on the first day of its implementation.

The strike left thousands of commuters stranded in key points in Metro Manila, including EDSA and Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City.

Some bus operators however denied that they went on strike. Claire de la Fuente, the Integrated Metro Bus Operators Association president said her members merely were not able to deploy enough buses because some drivers did not report for work on the impression that the planned strike had pushed through.

De la Fuente said they had called off the strike after the MMDA had assured them that priority would be given to a further discussion on the UVVRP’s implementation.

In response to the strike, Tolentino called on the LTFRB to sanction the striking bus firms for violating their certificates of public conveyance.

Late last month, the MMDA met with local government units where large shopping districts are located in a bid to come-out with a doable solution to relieve traffic congestion along EDSA during the Christmas holiday rush.

Last Dec. 3, the MMDA hosted a traffic summit in Quezon City with the aim of identifying other traffic areas along EDSA and on other major Metro roads and to come-out with doable solutions.

Participating in the summit were representatives from lead government agencies such as the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Health, Department of Transportation and Communication, LTO, LTFRB, Philippine Coast Guard and the local traffic bureaus of Metro Manila’s 17 local government units.

According to Tolentino, the traffic management summit had been in the pipeline since last November when stakeholders engaged in a series of consultative meetings and workshops to draw up focal areas for the 2010 Metro Manila Traffic and Transport Action Plan. –Mike Frialde (The Philippine Star)