THE government is suspending the implementation of the controversial Anti-Distracted Driving Act following confusion and complaints among motorists over what is allowed and what is not inside a vehicle.
“To respond to the call of both Houses of Congress to defer the implementation of ADDA, the Department of Transportation, Land Transportation Office, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, Metro Manila Development Authority, and the PNP Highway Patrol Group take heed to the Congress, being the authors of the law, to defer the enforcement of Republic Act 10913,” the MMDA said in an advisory posted on Facebook on Tuesday.
In other developments:
• The LTFRB has no authority to prohibit rosaries and other religious images in car dashboards, according to a legal expert.
Romulo Macalintal says there is also no legal basis to ban religious items on car dashboards even with Republic Act 10913 or the Anti-Distracted Driving Act.
He says rosaries and similar small religious items displayed on a car are not even mentioned or subject to RA 10913.
• Senator Grace Poe said Tuesday she has scheduled a public hearing next week to review the rules released by the government and address the confusion in the implementation of the ADDA.
Poe, head of the Senate committee on public services, said she had decided to convene a hearing on May 30 after several senators called for the temporary suspension of the law’s full implementation.
• Senator JV Ejercito on Tuesday filed Senate Resolution 386 that seeks an investigation into the Implementing Rules and Regulations of ADDA due to the chaos in its enforcement.
He also cited in his two-page resolution the urgent need to suspend the law’s implementation to review and fine-tune its law’s IRR.
The MMDA’s advisory also says the Transport Department “shall immediately revive its Technical Working Group to conduct a review of the Implementing Rules and Regulation of the law in coordination with concerned stakeholders.
“An Information and Education Campaign shall commence as soon as the new IRR is crafted. In the meantime, we invite the public to continue the constructive discussion on this new law so as to contribute on how we could all better promote road safety, discipline, and responsible driving.”
The advisory came a day after lawmakers asked the Transport department and the LTO to suspend the enforcement of the law over the confusion over it.
A number of senators had claimed that the implementing agencies had conflicting interpretations of the law.
Senators Nancy Binay and Richard Gordon also raised concern over the implementation of the law and called for a review of the law’s IRR.
Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito also said ADDA became complicated after authorities misunderstood its purpose.
“They made matters complicated when it was basically just about banning the use of cellphones while driving,” he said.
The law says writing, reading, sending a text-based message, making phone calls, or watching movies, surfing the internet, reading an e-book or performing any sort of computation on a mobile device by a motorist is not allowed.
The law also covers motorcycles, trucks, cargo haulers carrying hazardous or flammable materials, cyclists, pedicabs, and animal or human-powered vehicles. With Rey E. Requejo and Macon Ramos-Araneta