MMDA ready for transport protest actions

MANILA, Philippines - The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will mobilize its traffic personnel to help ensure peace and order in tomorrow’s transport actions to be staged by several groups opposing the implementation of higher fines for operators of colorum vehicles.

MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino, who also sits as head of the Presidential Task Force on Transport Strikes and Mass Actions (TRASMA), said the MMDA will deploy all necessary personnel to aid motorists and commuters who would be affected by the protests.

"We are ready to provide additional vehicles for ‘Libreng Sakay’ to serve the commuters,” Tolentino said.

He also encouraged the public to use the Pasig River ferry service as an alternate mode of transportation.

"We recognize the transport groups’ right to voice their grievances but this should not affect nor greatly inconvenience the rights of the greater majority to conduct their daily business as protected likewise by the general welfare clause of the Constitution," he added.

Tolentino said he had been briefed by Police Director Carmelo Valmoria, chief of the National Capital Regional Police Office  about the police’s contingency measures for tomorrow.

The Stop and Go Coalition, an umbrella organization of several transport operators, said it has 14,000 members who are expected to participate in what they called "voluntary" transport protests.

The transport caravan will assemble at the Quezon City Memorial Circle before proceeding to the offices of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board along East Avenue and the Department of Transportation and Communications in Pasig City.

Tolentino said MMDA's role is to monitor the transport caravan and the routes it is expected to take to ensure that no commuters will be stranded and traffic flow will remain unhampered.

The agency's vehicles, especially buses and trucks, will also be placed on standby to ferry stranded commuters if needed, as well as emergency units such as ambulances.
           
"We will be fielding extra number of traffic personnel along the caravan’s routes to keep vehicular traffic moving," Tolentino said, calling the commuters to monitor the MMDA’s websites and Facebook and Twitter accounts for continuous traffic advisories and updates.

Under the DOTC-LTFRB Joint Administrative Order,  franchise-less public utility jeeps now stand to pay a fine of P50,000.

Offenders using motorcycles will shell out P6,000; sedans, P120,000; vans, P200,000; trucks, P200,000; and buses, up to P1 million.