MMDA to study seniors’ number coding exemption

The proposal to exempt senior citizens from the number coding scheme still needs further study, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) acting Chairman Don Artes said on Wednesday. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — The proposal to exempt senior citizens from the number coding scheme still needs further study, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) acting Chairman Don Artes said on Wednesday.

Artes, who attended Tuesday’s House Committee on Ways and Means hearing, made his response to some lawmakers’ suggestions to include senior citizens in the number-coding scheme exemption.

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“We want to know the details [of the proposal] because we also receive many requests for exemption,” Artes said, speaking partly in Filipino, over a Radyo 630 interview on Wednesday.

“We have to study carefully the impact of the proposal.”

Artes also explained that if the seniors were granted the exemption, persons with disabilities and those with special children might also request to be excluded from the coding scheme.

“When such an exemption is opened, many more will follow, defeating the purpose of our number coding scheme,” he said.

The only vehicles currently exempted from the number coding scheme are public vehicles, transport network vehicles, motorcycles, marked government vehicles, garbage trucks, fire trucks, ambulances, and vehicles carrying perishables or essential goods.