Metro mayors, MMDA unite vs LTFRB’s ‘no apprehension policy’

MANILA, Philippines–Metro mayors, together with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), unanimously approved on Monday a resolution defying the recent memorandum circulars issued by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB).

In an emergency meeting in Makati, the MMDA and its policy-making body, the Metro Manila Council, said that local government units in the metropolis would, through Board Resolution No. 3, Series of 2014, start enforcing their respective traffic policies despite the LTFRB’s “no apprehension policy” for “colorum” trucks and its order allowing provincial buses to once again pass through Edsa.

The mayors warned truck operators to comply with the MMDA’s truck ban while bus operators were told to strictly stick to their approved routes.

MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino said that although they were continuously apprehending truck-ban violators, drivers have been using the LTFRB’s memorandum circulars to get around the law.

He noted that the multiple vehicle collision in Taguig City, which was caused by a cargo truck with green plates, would not have happened had the LTFRB not extended for a month the no-apprehension policy, also observed by the Land Transportation Office.

On July 21, the transport board released Board Resolution No. 5, Series of 2014, which allowed all for-hire trucks with green plates to ply Metro roads outside the MMDA’s truck-ban hours from July 29 to Aug. 29. The move, according to the LTFRB, was in response to a clamor from businessmen affected by the truck ban and a crackdown on “colorum” vehicles.

This was on top of a memorandum allowing provincial buses to pass through Edsa to reach their terminals in Metro Manila, almost a year after they were barred from entering the metropolis.

LTFRB Chair Winston Ginez, who met with the MMDA yesterday, meanwhile, asked for time to study the resolution. He also declined to be interviewed by reporters afterward.