MMDA on Edsa busway memo: It must be ‘not allowed,’ instead of ‘allowed’

Department of Transportation (DOTr) operatives apprehend two bus shuttles bearing the markings of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) for violating rules on the use of the Edsa busway on Thursday, April 4, 2024. | PHOTO: DOTr’s Special Action and Intelligence Committee for Transportation

MANILA, Philippines — The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Thursday apologized to the public following the apprehension of two of its bus shuttles for illegally using the Edsa Bus Carousel Lane.

In a press conference in Pasig city, MMDA acting chair Don Artes clarified that the agency’s employees are not allowed to use the Edsa busway.

READ: MMDA buses caught violating Edsa busway rules 

“Our policy is that MMDA employees are not allowed in the bus carousel (lane) except our emergency vehicles if responding to an emergency situation […] or our marked vehicles if they are performing operations on the bus carousel,” Artes said in Filipino.

But the shuttle drivers who were flagged down by transportation department operatives along Edsa Main Avenue showed a memorandum from the agency dated February 20, 2024, in which point three indicated that “MMDA shuttle buses designated for employee transportation are allowed to access the Edsa Bus Carousel Lane.”

However, the MMDA chief admitted that the memorandum erroneously failed to include the word “not” in the document’s specific provision.

“We had a memorandum […] issued on September 19, 2023, which said that our employees are not allowed to use the bus carousel (lane),” he first said.

“But this February 20, we again issued a directive because there had been reports that there were some hard-headed employees […] who were entering the bus carousel. Unfortunately, in this (number three), instead of ‘not allowed,’ it was put there as ‘allowed.’ This was eventually corrected,” he explained.

READ: More erring ambulance drivers apprehended on Edsa busway 

Artes then said that the agency is still probing whether or not the apprehended drivers were not able to receive a copy of the revised rule.

Following incidents of marked vehicles being apprehended for violating the rules on using the Edsa busway, Department of Transportation on Wednesday reiterated that the “dedicated lane is for public utility buses to move as many commuters as possible while keeping the lane free from private vehicles.”