‘Review the powers of the MMDA’ — Drilon

SENATE Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said the mandate of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to implement traffic-related policies should probably be strengthened.

“I proposed that we review the powers of the MMDA in so far as traffic management is concerned and I think we can have a good debate on that,” Drilon on Tuesday said during a Senate committee inquiry into the MMDA’s proposed ban on provincial buses on EDSA and the traffic congestion on Metro Manila’s main thoroughfare.

“It’s about time that we review [MMDA’s mandate] given the chaotic situation because it has been brought out that the reason for the injunction … is that the MMDA admitted that they had no power [and] that the power belongs to LGUs [local government units],” the lawmaker said.

The Quezon City Regional Trial Court had earlier stopped the dry run of the provincial bus ban on EDSA. In a 25-page decision released last week, the court said both the MMDA and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board seemed to have abused their police powers when they amended the routes of provincial buses and ordered the closure of provincial bus terminals along EDSA without sufficiently consulting the ban’s stakeholders, a report posted Tuesday on the Philippine Daily Inquirer said.

“Maybe it’s an opportunity for us to review this particular aspect because, otherwise, the implementor is hamstrung by the lack of authority as bound by the courts,” Drilon was quoted by the Inquirer as saying.