MANILA, Philippines — The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is now out to get bus companies that employ divisive schemes to evade the agency’s implementation of the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program (UVVRP) or “number-coding” scheme, impounding a number of public utility buses (PUBs) on Wednesday. “We believe that there is circumvention here and we are now looking at their schemes,” said MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino.
During the first day of the number-coding scheme with compliance of the bus operators, traffic enforcers deployed on EDSA and other areas, have impounded eight buses belonging to different companies, MMDA Supervising Consultant for Traffic Danilo Gaoiran.
The MMDA chairman said some of these buses have missing rear license plates, which he suspects bus companies are deliberately taking out and lending them to other bus units that could not ply their route as it is prohibited under the number-coding scheme.
He then ordered the traffic enforcers to monitor the schemes of erring bus companies and put an end to their practice.
He said the number-coding scheme is just one way to limit the number of vehicles along EDSA but not actually absolutely solves the traffic condition in the metropolis.
Despite the denial and excuses of bus operators that they have staged a strike last Monday, Tolentino said 80 bus companies have participated in the strike by not plying their routes which resulted in inconvenience to thousands of commuters.
Among the bus companies that may face sanctions include Manrose and Jell, Star Bus, Taguig Metrolink, RRCG, Citybus, Hi-Star, Don Mariano, Royal, among others.
These bus companies will undergo investigation under the Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and bus companies that will be found liable for Monday's strike might be stripped of their franchise
As this developed, Tolentino is now eyeing the “cleansing” of bus franchises to remove erring operators, adding that he is planning to propose the move in the House of Representatives.
“With a legislative-initiative, there will be a cancellation of all franchises and bus operators will have to apply again for new franchises. We will start from zero and then we weed out the illegal ones, colorum, out of line buses,” said Tolentino.
“We will start from scratch and only those who are qualified will be approved,” said Tolentino.
Anna Lisa Villas, Manila Bulletin
