MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives will ask the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Land Transportation Office (LTO) for help in apprehending vehicles with unauthorized No. 8 vehicle plate numbers.
In a statement on Wednesday, House Secretary General Reginald Velasco said that expired or spurious plates should be confiscated.
The No. 8 plates are used on vehicles being used by House members.
“The House of Representatives has not released, or authorized the use of official plates for vehicles of House Members,” Velasco said.
“I am seeking representation with the Land Transportation Office and the Metro Manila Development Authority to apprehend the drivers of vehicles bearing ‘8’ plates and confiscate the expired or spurious plates,” he added.
In a later message to INQUIRER.net, Velasco explained that the rationale behind this call was to stop “the use of all unauthorized/expired/ spurious protocol ‘8’ plates.”
House officials have not mentioned it, but there have been several incidents in the past where traffic rule violators have either name-dropped a House member or used fake No. 8 plates to get away.
Earlier, while the MMDA was in the heat of flagging down private and unauthorized vehicles passing through the exclusive bus lane along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa), there were reports that Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla’s vehicle was among those stopped.
The head of the MMDA Task Force Special Operations Unit, Bong Nebrija, reported this, but he eventually apologized to Revilla after the senator insisted that he was not in the vehicle.
Revilla, who hails from Cavite, explained that he could not have been on Edsa in Mandaluyong, where the subject car was stopped, as he uses a different route going to the Senate.
READ: Bong Revilla wants MMDA’s Nebrija to resign over ‘baseless lie’
In another incident, former Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Christopher Co denied owning the white sports utility vehicle that was stopped by MMDA along the Edsa bus lane earlier.
Co said he did not use special plates even when he was in Congress.