Mayors junk 3-digit coding scheme

MANILA, Philippines - The Metro Manila Council (MMC) scrapped yesterday a proposal by House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez to impose a three-digit number coding scheme this Christmas.

The council, comprised of Metro Manila’s 17 mayors, thumbed down the proposal because they have yet to thoroughly study its possible effects on motorists, said Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) officer-in-charge Tim Orbos.

“Too tight and too soon. We lack preparation. We have to study first. We may implement this, but not this Christmas season,” Orbos said, adding that the mayors may enforce the proposal next year.

For now, the mayors have agreed to intensify the enforcement of measures against illegal parking, with the help of barangay officials.

Orbos said Interior and Local Government Secretary Mike Sueno assured him that the barangay officials will help in traffic management.

More study needed 

Suarez’s three-digit number coding proposal needs further study, Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo said yesterday.

“We need more intensive study to determine its expediency and seamlessness, and its impact on families that own only one vehicle and workers who drive cars to their workplace,” he said.

He said the proposal, if adopted by the MMDA, would deprive these families and employees of the privilege of using their vehicles two or three times a week.

Castelo said the scheme would benefit only rich families or those with at least three or four cars.

Under Suarez’s proposal, vehicles with license plates ending in 1, 2 and 3 would be prohibited on major roads on Monday, those ending in 3, 4 and 5 would be banned on Tuesday, and so on.

Castelo said he does not believe that a three or four-digit coding would ease traffic congestion.

“What would reduce congestion is honest-to-goodness and consistent strict enforcement of traffic laws and regulations,” he said.

He cited the MMDA campaign to confine motorcycle drivers and owners to their designated lanes along EDSA, Commonwealth Avenue and Roxas Boulevard.

 “They started the campaign two weeks ago, but I noticed that this week, they are no longer enforcing the motorcycle lane on Commonwealth Avenue,” Castelo said.

He also took the MMDA and the Inter-Agency Council for Traffic to task for the monstrous traffic jam created by a lone cement mixer-truck that overturned near the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Tandang Sora in Quezon City on Tuesday morning.

Motorists complained that more than six hours after the accident occurred at about 5 a.m., traffic enforcers were still trying to tow the truck away.

Castelo said traffic authorities should be proactive in situations such as what happened on Tuesday morning.

They should have also opened the Fairview-bound lane starting from the foot of the Tandang Sora flyover to counter-flow traffic, he added.