SC upholds MMDA’s number coding scheme

The Supreme Court has affirmed the authority of the Metro Manila Development Authority to enforce measures aimed at resolving traffic congestion in the National Capital Region, including the implementation of the MMDA’s number coding scheme on public utilities.

In an en banc decision penned by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, the SC Court En Banc ruled that petitioners Samson Pantaleon, et al. had “failed to present a clear factual foundation to rebut the presumption of validity of the challenged issuances”, particularly the MMDA’s

Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program, otherwise known as the number coding scheme, embodied in MMDA Resolution No. 10-16 and MMDA Memorandum Circular No. 08, Series of 2010.

The SC stressed that the assailed MMDA issuances were validly issued pursuant to MMDA’s power to regulate traffic under RA 7924.

Under RA 7924, the MMDA is vested with authority to regulate the delivery of metro-wide services in Metropolitan Manila. The law confers upon MMDA, through the Metro Manila Council (MMC), the power to issue regulations that provide for a system to regulate traffic major thoroughfares of Metro Manila for the safety and convenience of the public.

According to the high court, the MMDA issuances were issued within the limits of the powers granted to MMDA.

The tribunal pointed out that the MMDA’s discretion to reimpose the number coding scheme on public utility buses was a reasonably appropriate response to the serious traffic problem pervading Manila.

“The arbitrariness, oppressiveness and unreasonableness of the implementation of the issuances have not been sufficiently shown. The buses driven by petitioners have not been totally banned or prohibited from plying the Metro Manila roads. However, as in private vehicles, the operation of public utility buses in Metro Manila was merely regulated with a view to curb traffic congestion,” the SC held.

The tribunal noted that “there is no outright deprivation of property but merely a restriction in the operation of public utility buses along the major roads of Metro Manila through the number coding scheme.”

The  SC also held that the challenged issuances do no encroach upon the regulatory powers of the Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board over public utility vehicles under EO 202, saying the MMDA issuances also are not violative of the due process clause of the Constitution.

The SC also held that petitioners, who are bus drivers plying along the routes between SM Fairview and Baclaran, are not the real parties in interest. The real parties in interest are the bus owners/operators or franchisees, it noted.

By virtue of a memorandum of agreement between MMDA and bus operators associations, public utility buses were partially exempted from the number coding scheme. However, the public utility buses were  eventually included in the traffic scheme pursuant to the assaile MMDA issuances.