Today is the first day of the resumption of face-to-face classes in many, if not all, public and private schools all over the country. After more than two years of “blended learning” during the COVID-pandemic period, teachers as well as students are back to physical attendance in schools. Naturally, a lot of mobility of people and vehicles are also back on the roads.
Thus, the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) re-started last week its number-coding, or the odd-even plate number ban on all motor vehicles on specified days and window hours of exemptions. The MMDA has deployed back to full force its traffic enforcers to implement this vehicle reduction scheme all over the busy metropolis.
More preoccupied in spotting banned vehicle plate numbers’ ending, the MMDA traffic enforcers are so sharp and eagle-eyed to pounce at violators even in darkness during the five to eight o’clock in the evening effectivity period.
The MMDA traffic enforcers have become oblivious of their more important task of helping ease the traffic gridlock problems in their respective areas of jurisdictions. With their own network of closed-circuit-television (CCTV) cameras, obviously the MMDA head office does all the work in monitoring the traffic movement.
Attention to the MMDA. Please take a closer look at your own network of CCTVs and focus on the two consecutive very busy intersections along Gil Puyat Avenue (formerly called Buendia) and Dian St. in the city of Makati. Surely, it will not escape notice the very long lines of vehicles that have become daily sight due to slow, if not non-moving traffic. The cause of congestion? The traffic lights are not working. The non-functioning traffic lights have been the bane to motorists every day at this busy cross-section in Metro Manila.
It was not a problem before even when Gil Puyat Ave. was still under repair for months and made a one-way road. But since it was opened to two-way traffic recently, this has become a motorist’s nightmare. “Konting attention lang please,” harassed motorists moan as they go through this hellish traffic.
Motorists and drivers are thus left on their own to inch their way through. But the problem is each motorist tries to outsmart each other. We call it in Tagalog, “unahan” (get ahead by whatever means) and “gitgitan” (to jostle for space). Worse, not a single traffic aide of Makati City nor MMDA is around to assist in untangling the traffic.
Is this what the no contact apprehension program (NCAP) resulted to? No more traffic enforcers so that there would be no more “kotong” activities. This is supposed to be the logic in imposing the NCAP violators with “excessive” fines to engender fear among reckless drivers and road hogs. As conceived by the NCAP, it will eventually help ease traffic enforcement because drivers and motorists will become more disciplined on the road.
However, drivers and motorists are now left to the mercy of these CCTVs. Is this the unseen added cost and burden to motorists as NCAP relying on CCTVs and not on the human discretion of traffic enforcers who are on the road and at hand to untangle traffic?
The NCAP is run by Qpax Traffic Systems Inc. as third party operator of at least six Metro Manila local government units (LGUs). Qpax is described as an information technology (IT) company based in Makati City that offers “true end-to-end traffic enforcement solutions” to LGUs and national government agencies.
Under Private-Public Partnership contract with Qpax, the LGUs in the cities of Manila, Quezon, Paranaque, San Juan, Valenzuela and Muntinlupa entered into a 70-30 sharing scheme on fines collected. Although the LGUs collect the fines, the bigger portion of 70 percent is remitted to the Qpax and only 30 percent goes to the LGUs.
There were test-runs supposedly done before NCAP took effect in 2019. After which, the legislative councils of the six Metro Manila LGUs passed and approved their respective local ordinances specifying sets of traffic violations and corresponding amounts of fines ranging from P2,000 to P5,000. Notably, these were done before the COVID-19 pandemic period when the mobility of people and vehicles was not yet limited and restricted.
Except for Muntinlupa City, Mayor Ruffy Biazon announced their local council has yet to pass its own implementing rules and regulations on the NCAP traffic ordinance.
Nothing much was heard about it until it came to boil when huge amounts of fines piled up against NCAP violators.
If tagged with NCAP notices of violations, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) requires payment or settlement of fines before vehicle owners can register his or her vehicle. Initially, Assistant Secretary Teofilo Guadiz, LTO chief echoed the complaints of vehicle owners and sought for a temporary suspension of the NCAP pending its review by these LGUs along with MMDA.
Subsequently, the LTO issued a memorandum circular to allow vehicles to be registered even those with NCAP tagging. However, Guadiz rescinded his own directives for unknown reasons. Citing he is not against the NCAP per se, Guadiz claimed he was merely asking time for the requested review.
In a joint statement released last week, the said Metro Manila mayors stood their grounds to continue NCAP enforcement while continuously improving their traffic infrastructures. These Metro Manila local chief executives who signed the joint statement were, namely, Mayors Joy Belmonte of Quezon City; Wes Gatchalian of Valenzuela; Eric Olivarez of Parañaque; Honey Lacuña of Manila; and Francis Zamora of San Juan City.
Several petitions were filed at the Supreme Court (SC) seeking to stop the NCAP as being “unconstitutional” and allegedly a form of illegal exactions. This is not to mention the calls for suspension pending congressional probe into NCAP.
As students troop back to their schools, traffic woes are back, too. But with their own CCTVs, the MMDA traffic enforcers just limit their sights on carplate numbers of vehicles on the road.