NO matter how one objectively examines the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and its Metro Manila Council’s decision to ban provincial buses from EDSA and compel their terminals’ transfer elsewhere, the move seems mindless and unfair to provincial commuters.
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, whose fellow Bicolanos will be severely burdened by the ban, has branded it as “senseless, anti-poor and ‘anti-probinsyano.’
Last March 21, MMDA’s Metro Manila Council passed Resolution 19-002 banning the issuance of business permits to all public utility vehicle terminals along EDSA and transferring them to ‘super terminals’ in Valenzuela City for north bound buses, and Sta. Rosa, Laguna, 39 kilometers away from Manila, for buses going south to Bicol and the Visayas.
Previously scheduled April, the ban’s implementation was deferred to June, for certain reasons, including perhaps the upcoming elections. Records show there are 2.8 million vehicles in Metro Manila – 800,000 utility vehicles, 400,000 cars, 120,000 trucks and 1.4 million tricycles. This makes inconsequential the 4,000 provincial buses – 2,500 from the north and 1,500 from the south.
Given this figures, who indeed causes Metro Manila’s traffic mess? Sound governance policy gives priority consideration to public over personal transport. Thus, as Salceda asserts, “worldwide, even in New York or in Tokyo, provincial bus stations are in the heart of the city because public transport has priority over private vehicles.” He sees no reason why provincial bus terminals should be located “39 kilometers away” from the commuters’ destination.
Indeed, shifting the bus station to Sta. Rosa, Laguna and Valenzuela City will unduly burden and inconvenience provincial commuters who oftentimes travel by ordinary buses only, charging less than R1,000 because they cannot afford expensive airplane fares. In that sense, the ban is indeed “anti-poor” and “anti-probinsiyano.”
Furthermore, as Salceda notes, “it is not the number of provincial buses but the behavior of drivers in Metro Manila that cause the traffic chaos since provincial buses get and drop passengers only in their own terminals.” The Provincial Bus Operators Association of the Philippines calls the ban a ‘band aid solution to a very serious ailment.”
Salceda actually is just being consistent. In 2014 when he was Albay governor, he filed a Mandamus against the LTFRB circular limiting South Luzon buses up to Alabang only for “lack of empirical basis, with no prior notice and consultation, and imposing undue burden and inconvenience among provincial commuters.”
