A party-list group yesterday filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking to stop the implementation of the ban on provincial buses on EDSA.
In a 44-page petition, the AKO Bicol party list group urged the SC to stop the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority from implementing the ban and revoking the operation permits of bus terminals and other public utility vehicles.
The measure had been part of MMDA’s efforts to decongest traffic on EDSA which stretches from Pasay City in the south to Quezon City in the north.
The group’s representative, Ronaldo Ang, said the ban will unduly affect the more than 3,300 provincial buses ferrying passengers from out of the capital, although it is a miniscule number of the 367,000 daily vehicle volume.
The group’s lawyer Joselito Guianan Chan sought the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction and or a temporary restraining order as an immediate relief against the implementation of MMDA Regulation No. 19-002, Series of 2019.
The petitioner also asked the SC to eventually declare the regulation null and void for being contrary to the provisions of the Constitution.
It argued that the revocation of business permits granted to all public utility bus terminals and operators is tantamount to an exercise of police power, which the MMDA and the Metro Manila Council, composed of all the mayors in the metropolis, do not possess.
“There is no single word or syllables in RA No. 7924 (the law creating MMDA) that grants respondent MMDA police power, let alone legislative power. Even respondent MMC has not been delegated any legislative power,” the petitioner insisted.
It noted that provincial buses are not the main cause of traffic congestion along EDSA but city buses and private motor vehicles. (PNA and Jeffrey Damicog)