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Friday, March 29, 2024

Serious legal issues regarding Edsa yellow lanes, road barriers

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Late last year, President Benigno Aquino III turned over the management of the traffic problem along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue to the Highway Patrol Group of the Philippine National Police. The HPG managed to improve the traffic situation along Edsa for a few weeks, until recently when the situation even worsened due to plain and simple administrative incompetence.

It will be recalled that during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation conference held last November in Pasay City, traffic was reorganized throughout the metropolis.   Heavy, orange-colored road barriers that look like expired Toblerone chocolate bars were installed in many major roads to designate the lanes for the exclusive use of Apec participants.   The new MMDA chief, Emerson Carlos, said that the inconvenience to metropolitan motorists will be for the duration of the Apec conference only.  

That was not to be so.   

After the Apec conference, Carlos used the orange road barriers to separate the so-called yellow lanes (external lanes reserved for buses) from the inner lanes of Edsa. These barriers were also used in other roadways, mostly in Quezon City and in Pasig.

Because the barriers are not reflectorized, they become dangerous road hazards at night, especially to motorists who do not frequent the roads on which they are installed.   Since these barriers are heavy, a motorist accidentally hitting them can get seriously injured or even killed, with the vehicle concerned ending up a total wreck.   Carlos’ road barriers along both lanes of Commonwealth Avenue, those on the southbound lane of Edsa, particularly infront of Nepa-Q-Mart and Farmers’ Market, and those at the approach to the Edsa-Ortigas Avenue flyover, are all life-threatening roadblocks. Their use is a violation of the Vienna Convention on road safety.   

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One day, a motorist who will end up in an accident because of these road hazards will file anti-graft charges against Carlos before the Office of the Ombudsman.   That should wake up Carlos.

There are many other reasons why traffic along Edsa and other major roadways will never improve as long as Carlos and his cohorts are in the MMDA.   Here are some.  

The numerous potholes along Edsa are large enough to force motorists who see them to slow down to avoid damage to their vehicles. With Carlos’ orange road blocks reducing the volume of movable space in the area where the pothole is located, many motorists have no choice but to suffer these road ruts.   Several large potholes can be found along the northbound lane of Edsa right after the exit end of the Aurora Boulevard underpass.  

Motorcycles along Edsa and Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City change lanes indiscriminately, thus causing frequent disturbance in traffic momentum. Former MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino once introduced motorcycle lanes along these roads, but soon discontinued it. 

Tricyles and pedicabs should be banned from Edsa and its tributaries.   They clog the segments of Edsa near Roxas Boulevard, near the Magallanes flyover, and especially in the four corners of the Edsa-Quezon Avenue intersection.

Speed limits fixed by law must be enforced along Edsa which means that the innermost lane of a highway is solely for fast vehicles, and that slow-moving vehicles should stay off these lanes. It also means that the u-turn segments along Edsa in Quezon City should be dismantled. They block the fast lanes and create unnecessary bottlenecks. Vehicles that need to make u-turns are the exception to the general flow of traffic. Being so, they should adjust and make their u-turns under flyovers and bridges.      

Carlos has not done anything to solve these problems. He may be too busy computing how much money the MMDA made in last year’s film festival.   

Last week, the authorities announced that the yellow lanes along certain parts of Edsa will be for buses only, and that private vehicles are not allowed in these lanes unless they are entering or leaving Edsa. So far, heavy fines have been imposed on violators.  The government claims that the measure has reduced travel time for bus commuters.   In contrast, many commuters insist that there is no such improvement.      

The yellow lane rule and the fines that come with it raise a serious legal issue.   First, there is no law which authorizes them, and the MMDA cannot act without an enabling law because the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the MMDA is devoid of police power.   Second, rules which impose penalities, fines included, must be published in newspapers of general circulation and their publication must be certified by the University of the Philippines Law Center.   So far, the yellow lane rule and its punitive sanctions have not been published.

Evidently, anyone implementing the yellow lane rule may be vulnerable to anti-graft raps from any motorist who is subjected to the fine.   In other words, a motorist who has been issued a traffic ticket and fined for violating the yellow lane rule can file criminal charges against the traffic enforcer who issued the ticket, and the government officials behind this unlawful measure.

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