THREE local government units in Metro Manila will ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling invalidating their authority to issue traffic citation tickets and confiscate the driver’s licenses of erring motorists.
The High Court ruling also held that LGUs in the metropolis must comply with the single ticketing system of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.
MMDA Chairperson Romando Artes said Makati, Manila and Mandaluyong will file a motion for reconsideration of the SC ruling.
“The MMDA will not file a motion for reconsideration. But the LGUs will decide whether or not they will file an appeal, but the majority of them will,” Artes told reporters in a press briefing after a meeting of the Metro Manila Council at the agency’s headquarters in Pasig City.
“The cities of Makati, Manila and Mandaluyong will file an appeal. They are sure of their decision to file a motion for reconsideration, but many other LGUs will also file an appeal, but so far, the three are already sure,” he said.
The MMC, whose members are the 17 Metro mayors, is the policy-making body of the MMDA.
Earlier, Artes said local traffic enforcers can still issue traffic citation tickets since the SC ruling is not yet final and executory.
San Juan Mayor and MMC president Francis Zamora also confirmed the three LGUs would appeal the SC ruling, adding they intend to do it separately because a consolidated appeal will take a lot of time.
While the LGUs have yet to file their appeal, Artes said the agency and the MMC are preparing to comply with the SC’s decision by consolidating traffic regulations under the Metro Manila Traffic Code and by deputizing local traffic enforcers to enforce traffic laws in national roads within their jurisdiction.
Artes said the MMDA will give local traffic enforcers provisional authority to issue traffic citation tickets, adding this would be done as soon as possible to avoid chaos in the metropolis’ roadways.
Artes said the MMDA already has received reports that there are erring motorists who refused and even verbally abused, some local traffic enforcers when accosted for traffic violations by citing the SC decision.
“We (MMDA and MMC) have agreed to give them provisional authority for now. Our cut-off for the deputization is December 31 this year for them to be able to comply with the requirements,” he said.
Zamora said Artes would deputize local traffic enforcers so they would have the authority to issue traffic citations.
“If our traffic enforcers will not enforce the traffic laws of the LGUs, what we will see is violations everywhere and are avoiding that,” Zamora added.
Muntinlupa Mayor Ruffy Biazon and Pateros Mayor Nestor Ponce said they also agreed with the MMDA plan to grant provisional authority to local traffic enforcers, adding the rest of their colleagues also assented to the matter.
Artes explained that fully deputizing local traffic enforcers would require a series of training and exams which the LGUs and even the agency would not be able to do in one swoop.
He said traffic enforcers must have completed at least two years of college, must undergo 72 units of training, and need to pass an exam.
“We need time to recruit additional traffic personnel. It seems most of them will not qualify and we will lack the number to man our roadways, that’s why we need the provisional authorization so that traffic enforcement will continue. Just imagine a scenario where there are no local enforcers to issue tickets starting today. It will be chaos,” Zamora said.
Ponce said Pateros cannot comply 100 percent immediately with the MMDA requirements for traffic enforcers considering that many of them are just job orders or contractual employees.
“In Pateros, many of our traffic enforcers are JO employees so many of them will not be fully deputized, that’s why we need time to comply with the requirements,” said Ponce, the mayor of the lone municipality in Metro Manila.
Zamora added the MMDA also would not be able to fully cover all major roadways in Metro Manila considering that it only has less than 2,500 traffic enforcers.
He said the agency needs around 8,000 traffic enforcers to cover EDSA and other major thoroughfares in the metropolis.
