The Metro Manila Development Authority on Monday announced it was temporarily suspending the dry run of a new policy not allowing provincial buses to enter Epifanio delos Santos Avenue.
MMDA general manager Jose Arturo Garcia Jr. said the dry run was temporarily halted pending the meeting among officials of the MMDA, Department of Transportation and Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.
“We will continue with the dry run once the guidelines and implementing rules have been ironed out by the three agencies involved,” Garcia said.
The MMDA told legislators that its policy to ban provincial buses along EDSA needed a thorough evaluation, MMDA traffic chief Bong Nebrija told House reporters.
Nebrija said the decision of the MMDA to suspend such policy was intended to avoid inconvenience to passengers during the May 13 midterm poll.
He made the statement after the MMDA called off the scheduled May 15 dry run of the provincial bus ban along EDSA.
“We decided to suspend it. Among the reasons for the suspension is the scheduled elections next week. In order not to delay commuters going to their provinces this coming election to vote, we decided to suspend it,” said Nebrija at the sidelines of the joint hearing of the House committees on appropriations and on transportation and on oversight on public expenditures led by Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
But Nebrija clarified the provincial bus ban policy would still be enforced at the soonest possible time.
“We’re just suspending it, we’re not cancelling it. We’re just suspending,” he said.
According to Garcia, the MMDA does not want the policy to be politicized at this time when politics was too dominant because of the coming elections.
But he clarified that the strict enforcement of the no loading and unloading along EDSA for provincial buses would remain in effect.
The provincial bus ban is a result of Metro Manila Council Regulation Number 19-002 revoking/canceling the business permits of all provincial bus terminals along EDSA
The MMC, composed of Metro Manila mayors, is the governing board and the policy-making body of the MMDA.
Under the measure, provincial buses coming from South Luzon Expressway, especially those from Batangas and Laguna, are to pass through the terminal in Sta. Rosa City in Laguna, while those coming from the North Luzon Expressway are told to use the terminal in Valenzuela City, instead of entering Edsa.
The passengers can transfer to city operating buses that will take them to their destination in Metro Manila.
But various groups are against the what they described as “anti-poor” policy, saying the MMDA offered no explanation for the plan and it has no legal or scientific bases.
Ako Bikol Party-list said the policy was crafted solely based on a “mere verbal directive” from President Rodrigo Duterte.
The group filed a 44-page petition asking the Supreme Court to immediately issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) or a writ of preliminary injunction against the implementation of the policy.
It also asked the High Court to nullify the regulation, which prohibited and revoked the issuance of business permits to all terminals and operators of public utility buses and vehicles along EDSA on the ground that their entry to and departure from their respective terminals allegedly contribute to traffic congestion.
The group stated that the MMDA and its governing board Metro Manila Council have no authority to implement the ban as they were not authorized under the law to enact ordinances or approve resolutions, which are acts of police power that only the individual local government units can exercise.
It pointed out that only a small portion of the vehicles that ply EDSA on a daily basis are provincial buses: In 2017, 2/3 of more than 360,000 vehicles are private motor vehicles mostly occupied by single drivers, 12,000 are city buses while only 3,300 are provincial buses.
“It is not just that the few provincial buses used by the poor is being singled out. People’s travel time will be longer. Second, it will be more expensive,” the group stated.