MMDA asks mayors to approve daytime truck ban proposal

MANILA, Philippine – In anticipation of the monstrous traffic jams ahead of the holiday season, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority is appealing to Metro mayors to approve its proposal to enforce a daytime truck ban along the capital’s major thoroughfares.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said members of the Metro Manila Council, the agency’s policy-making body composed of the local chief executives in Metro Manila, are scheduled to meet on Nov. 21 (Wednesday) to discuss temporary measures in solving the perennial traffic woes during the holidays.

“Among the important topics is the truck ban patterned [after the scheme] enforced during the Asian Development Bank meeting [in Manila last May],” Tolentino said in Filipino in its weekly radio program.

The MMDA had expanded the truck ban on the dates the foreign delegates were in Manila for the 45th ADB Board of Governors Conference.

During the ADB meet, the MMDA only allowed trucks to go out on the streets from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. deviating from the current truck ban in which cargo trucks are banned from major thoroughfares from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays.

Tolentino said the expanded ban on trucks will cover major thoroughfares including the 24-kilometer long Edsa. Exempted from the scheme are cargo vehicles carrying perishable items like food.

“If this is implemented at the start of the holiday season, the traffic situation at times when our fellow Metro Manila residents are out in the streets would improve,” he said.

He said this truck ban during holidays is being implemented in other highly-urbanized cities abroad.

“We will let Metro Manila mayors decide on this,” he added.

At present, the truck ban covers vehicles with carrying capacity of more than 4, 000 kilograms. Violators are slapped with P500 fine.