MMDA to report overloaded Pasay bus

MANILA, Philippines — The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will report an overloaded passenger bus, which violated physical distancing protocols amid the general community quarantine.

Commuter Donniery Cabral took a video of the conductor overloading a Pasay-bound Jell Transport bus along EDSA in Makati on Friday night.

In his Facebook post that has gone viral, Cabral said the Friday rush hour should not be a reason to violate social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic.

The conductor was also heard telling passengers not to report the incident so they could all go home.

Passengers sat side by side while others stood along the aisle even as buses should only have a 50 percent passenger capacity.

Under government guidelines, passengers in public utility buses should be one seat apart. Standing on aisles is also not allowed.

MMDA EDSA traffic chief Bong Nebrija yesterday told The STAR he would report the incident to the Land Transportation Office and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.

He expressed frustration that the passengers and conductor were in cahoots to violate social distancing.

It would be difficult to conduct contact tracing among the passengers in the overloaded bus, he added.