Are there too many ‘coding’ exemptions?

Danilo Lim

The newly appointed chair of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has ordered a thorough review of the over 300 applications seeking exemption from the number coding scheme to ensure that these do not defeat the purpose of the traffic reduction policy.

From October 2016 up to May this year, the MMDA has issued 1,263 exemptions to the number coding scheme, officially known as the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program (UVVRP).

A total of 339 other applications are pending in the MMDA chair’s office.

“We would be reviewing every application to ensure that the exemptions issued by the agency would be reasonable and meritorious,” MMDA chair Danilo Lim said in a statement on Thursday.

Lim ordered deputy chief of staff Michael Salalima, with approval from chief of staff Jojo Garcia, to go through the applications coming from operators of light trucks, persons with disability, members of the media and school service providers, among other sectors.

Under the UVVRP, vehicles are not allowed to ply Metro Manila roads based on the last digit of their license plate: 1 and 2 are banned on Mondays, 3 and 4 on Tuesdays, 5 and 6 on Wednesdays, 7 and 8 on Thursdays, and 9 and 0 on Fridays.

The Metro Manila Council has expanded the UVVRP period from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. while scrapping the window hours of from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It also widened the coverage to include all national, circumferential and radial roads in the metropolis. —ERIKA SAULER