Chaos seen with TRO on 3 MMDA traffic schemes

Here is some piece of infuriating news. The Makati Regional Trial Court has issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on three MMDA traffic schemes. The traffic schemes to be suspended are the following: Metropolitan Traffic Ticketing System (MTTS), No Physical Contact Policy and the Edsa Organized Bus Route Project. These programs by the MMDA actually help reduce traffic and corruption in Metro Manila roads!

This is the reason why these transport groups asked for a TRO on these programs:
“The restraining order was in response to a petition by nine transport groups which claimed that the implementation of the schemes trampled on "their constitutional right to due process which necessarily include their right to life."”

How about the rest of the folks in Metro Manila? Don’t they have a right to have traffic-reduced commutes? We need order, not anarchy in our roadways. Shame on these transport groups for wanting to keep things corrupt to their favor and to the detriment of everyone else. Shame on the judge who granted the TRO; I think he granted this TRO as a favor to BF’s detractors.

As a people, if we allow things to degrade into chaos like this, then we deserve the consequences it begets.

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Chaos seen with TRO on 3 MMDA traffic schemes

Posted 00:43am (Mla time) Jan 31, 2005
By Margaux Ortiz
Inquirer News Service

EXPECT chaos back in the streets and in retrieving confiscated licenses once a temporary restraining order (TRO) on three key Metro Manila traffic schemes takes effect.

That was the warning aired by Chairman Bayani Fernando of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

He said, "The absence of an effective traffic scheme would mean chaos."
Fernando was referring to the Metropolitan Traffic Ticketing System (MTTS), No Physical Contact Policy and the Edsa Organized Bus Route Project.
On Thursday, Judge Cesar Santamaria, of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 145, issued a 20-day TRO on the three MMDA traffic schemes.

The restraining order was in response to a petition by nine transport groups which claimed that the implementation of the schemes trampled on "their constitutional right to due process which necessarily include their right to life."

Groups that sought the TRO are the Pinag-isang Samahan ng mga Tsuper Operators Nationwide (Piston), Philippine Confederation of Drivers and Operators-Alliance of Concerned Transport Operators (PCDO-ACTO), Alliance of Transport Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines (Altodap), Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association (Fejodap), Makati Jeepney Operator and Driver Alliance (MJODA), Integrated Metro Bus Operators Association (Imboa), North East Manila Bus Operators Group (Nembog) and Provincial Bus Operators Association of the Philippines (PBOAP).

Fernando lamented the court's decision, saying "I could not believe that the judge would issue such an order considering how important and effective the traffic policies are."

He added, "It is unbelievable that the court would allow itself to be used by transport groups, which have their own interests (to protect)."
The chairman explained that with the schemes, the MMDA uncovered some operators' illegal practices like their deployment of colorum (without franchise) and out-of-line units.

Up to yesterday, however, the MMDA had yet to receive a copy of the TRO, the implementation of which is dependent on the putting up of a P100,000 bond by the petitioning transport groups.

The bond, the court said, was to cover damages that the MMDA might incur due to the issuance of the TRO.

But the TRO on the schemes was the least of the MMDA and the motoring public's problems.

The suspension of the traffic schemes would mean going back to old ways of doing things, according to MMDA general manager Robert Nacianceno.

For one, the suspension of the MTTS would mean the resumption of license confiscations and the issuance of traffic violation receipts. These, in turn, would entail drivers lining up again at MMDA redemption centers.
And that is where real trouble begins.

With the implementation of the MTTS last year, the MMDA shut down its nine license redemption centers in Metro Manila.

The centers were closed because with the MTTS, traffic violators were only issued tickets for which corresponding fines could be paid at any of the hundreds of branches of a local bank.

During the effectivity of the TRO, drivers whose licenses would be confiscated would all have to line up at one place: the MMDA office in Makati City, which the agency plans to use as a temporary redemption center.

"Motorists would surely be inconvenienced because instead of merely paying their traffic fines at any Metrobank branch, they would have to line up with thousands of other motorists in a single redemption center," Fernando said.