The government will push through with the plan not allowing provincial buses to enter Epifanio de los Santos Avenue despite opposition from a group claiming the measure has no legal or scientific bases because it was crafted solely based on a “mere verbal directive” from President Rodrigo Duterte.
Ako Bicol Party-list had filed a 44-page petition asking the Supreme Court to immediately issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) or a writ of preliminary injunction against the implementation of Metro Manila Development Authority Regulation 19-002.
The group also asked the SC to nullify the regulation, which prohibited and revoked the issuance of business permits to all terminals and operators of public utility buses and vehicles along EDSA on the ground that their entry to and departure from their respective terminals allegedly contribute to traffic congestion.
It stated that the MMDA and its governing board Metro Manila Council had no authority to implement the ban as they were not authorized under the law to enact ordinances or approve resolutions, considered acts of police power that only the individual local government units could exercise.
The group also claimed the measure had neither legal nor scientific bases because it was crafted solely based on Duterte’s “mere verbal directive” during a Cabinet meeting in October 2018.
It pointed out that only a small portion of the vehicles that ply EDSA on a daily basis were provincial buses:
In 2017, 2/3 of more than 360,000 vehicles were private motor vehicles mostly occupied by single drivers, 12,000 were city buses while only 3,300 were provincial buses.
“It is not just that the few provincial buses used by the poor [that are] being singled out,” the group stated.
It added the people who regularly travel from Bicol to Manila are among those who stand to be greatly inconvenienced by the measure.
“People’s travel time will be longer. Second, it will be more expensive.”
The MMDA, the group said, offered no explanation for the plan. “They have to explain what they want to do to the people.”
But the MMDA is pushing through with the plan that provincial buses coming from South Luzon Expressway, especially those from Batangas and Laguna, are to pass through the terminal in Sta. Rosa City in Laguna, while those coming from the North Luzon Expressway are told to use the terminal in Valenzuela City, instead of entering EDSA.
Based on the initial plan, Metro Manila-bound passengers can transfer to city operating buses that will take them to their destination in Metro Manila.
According to MMDA general manager Jose Arturo Garcia Jr., there will be a meeting with Transportation officials this week to discuss the implementation of the measure.
“We want to ensure the availability of city buses that will pick up passengers from the interim terminals before we conduct the dry run on the use of the terminals,” said Garcia.
Garcia said they were optimistic that the initiative would decongest EDSA, particularly the yellow lane for the city buses.
There are 12,000 passenger buses in the National Capital Region, of which 8,000 are provincial buses while 4,000 are city buses.
Aside from city buses, Garcia said they were eyeing the deployment of point-to-point buses (P2P) buses to replace provincial buses.
“We shall have the same number of provincial buses. Some provincial buses will only be converted to P2P since they have baggage compartments,” explained Garcia.
The MMDA is targeting the closure of 46 bus terminals along EDSA by June.
In line with this, the implementation of the ‘no loading and unloading’ policy along EDSA for provincial buses remains.
Earlier, the MMC has approved Regulation No. 19-002 prohibiting the issuance of business permits to public utility vehicle terminals and operations along EDSA.
Once the business permits are revoked, the actual closure of the terminals can be implemented by the concerned local government units which have jurisdiction over the terminals.