Metro Briefs

MMDA to continue dry run vs solo driving on Edsa

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said Friday that it would expand its dry run “indefinitely” until they had fully determined the effectivity of its planned ban on solo-driven vehicles on Edsa during rush hours.

However, its full implementation originally scheduled on August 23 will remain suspended.

Metro Manila Council traffic committee head and Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista said the city mayors had agreed to push through with the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane policy to “study it further” and cull more data to be presented to lawmakers.

MMDA, however, will not impose penalties on erring motorists. But a member of the House committee on transportation on Friday called on the MMDA to stop its dry run of the HOV  scheme on Edsa for “plain gross misunderstanding” of how Filipino motorists and commuters would respond to it.

In a statement, 1-Care  Rep. Carlos Roman Uybarreta said motorists would still use their vehicles but avoid Edsa and thus clog the alternate roads, which are narrower, and traverse neighborhoods.—Krixia Subingsubing and Jerome Aning

Ammo, P40M worth of ‘shabu’ seized from Taiwanese

A Taiwanese national allegedly smuggling firearms and ammunition was arrested inside his hotel room in Manila on Friday.

Members of the Manila Police District (MPD) not only seized 200,000 rounds of 9-mm ammunition stored in dozens of large boxes, they also hauled 6 kilograms of suspected crystal meth (“shabu”) worth P40 million from the unit of Chang Chin Haw inside Room 506 of Good Hope Hotel on T. Mapua Street in Binondo district around 9 a.m. The MPD also recovered 365 pieces of foil-wrapped substance allegedly used to prepare shabu.

National Capital Region Police Office chief, Director Guillermo Eleazar, said the 31-year-old man from Kaohsiung City had been under surveillance. Eleazar said MPD operatives arrested Chang after “live ammunition pieces dropped from him” when he exited the hotel. Police followed the suspect and finally collared him inside his unit.—DEXTER CABALZA