The Philippine Supreme Court has ordered the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to respond to the petitions questioning the legality of a policy banning provincial buses on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa). LYN RILLON-PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
The Philippine Supreme Court has ordered the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to respond to the petitions questioning the legality of a policy banning provincial buses on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue – commonly called by its acronym Edsa.
Edsa is a limited-access belt road around the Philippine capital, Manila.
During Tuesday’s en banc (full court) session, the high court gave MMDA through Chairman Danilo Lim and the Metro Manila Council (MMC) which is composed of Metro Manila mayors, 10 days to submit its comment.
The high court also consolidated the petitions filed by Ako Bicol political party Representative Ronald Ang and Alfredo Garbin Jr, Albay Reprepresentative Joey Sarte Salceda and Bayan Muna partylist last April 29, May 27 and June 7, respectively.
However, the high court opted to defer its ruling on whether to grant a restraining order or not after MMDA temporarily suspended its implementation.
The petitions specifically sought to strike down the assailed measure, which the MMDA and MMC took to ease traffic in Metro Manila’s main thoroughfare, for violating the 1987 Constitution and existing laws.
They cited the lack of “consultations with the public about the issue and should have heard the sides of the owners, bus operators and especially the passengers who will be greatly affected with the implementation of the said regulation”.
Petitioners added that the ban, in effect, is an exercise of police power by MMDA and MMC which they don’t possess.
Petitioners added that provincial buses that travel on Edsa are less compared to city buses and private vehicles.
They cited the annual average daily traffic in 2017, which showed that an average of 367,738 vehicles traverse Edsa daily, with 67 per cent or 247,527 of these vehicles being private motor vehicles (with 60 to 70 per cent or an average of 148,516 to 185,645 private motor vehicles per day single occupancy vehicles) while city buses ply along Edsa with an average of 12,000 units daily and only around 3,300 provincial buses. PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
