LTFRB: Speeding buses can be fined twice

Passenger buses apprehended for speeding may be fined twice since the memorandum circular (MC) requiring bus companies to install a global positioning system (GPS) device in their units also imposes a penalty.

The matter came up on Tuesday during an ocular inspection by a Quezon City judge who was hearing the petition against the memo issued by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB).

“Will there be no conflict? Another penalty arose from one and the same act. You said the purpose is to curb (speeding), but (speeding) is already addressed by another (regulation). What’s the difference?” Judge Marilou Tamang of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 98 said.

LTFRB technical division chief Joel Bolano replied by saying that based on the monitoring of the GPS device, the memo would penalize the errant franchise holder or the bus operator, not the bus driver.

The GPS device is expected to automatically detect speeding and transmit the data to the server, Bolano said. The system will generate a report every day and a show-cause order will be sent to erring bus operators through e-mail.

The LTFRB memo imposes a fine of P1,000 for every speed limit violation. Bolano said the LTFRB would also ask the Land Transportation Office to suspend the driver’s license.

On the other hand, speeding drivers face a fine of P1,200 under an ordinance being implemented by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

“That’s one difference: For the MMDA, it’s the driver. For us, it’s the operator,” LTFRB Chair Winston Ginez, who was not present during the inspection, said when sought for clarification. “One action can be separately penalized by different laws or regulations.”

Ginez cited the antibouncing check law and estafa as examples. “There’s no violation when two separate regulatory bodies with different purposes penalize the same kind of violation.”

The court inspection was held at the Department of Science and Technology-Advanced Science and Technology Institute in Quezon City, where the server for the GPS monitoring was being hosted.

One of the issues raised by the petitioner—the Provincial Bus Operators Association of the Philippines—was whether the government had the technical capability to handle the volume of data for GPS monitoring.