According to Claire de la Fuente, president of the Integrated Metro Bus Operators Association (IMBOA), she tried to verify the reimposition plans last Friday but she could not get a written order about the new ban.
"I checked with the office of MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando and other officials, but no one could furnish me a copy of the supposed order. We only learned about it through the newspapers so we might as well ignore it," De la Fuente said.
Starting tomorrow, the MMDA will reimplement the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program (UVVRP) for passenger jeepneys and buses to ease traffic congestion in the metropolis.
But while jeepney operators agreed to be included in the coding system, bus owners wanted no part of the scheme.
Eleonor Santos, head of the North EDSA Manila Bus Operators (NEMBO) group, insisted that buses are not the cause of traffic congestion, blaming private vehicles which are greater in number.
"We are servicing the public, but it seems the MMDA does not appreciate this. Only one or two or three people are usually inside a private car, while a bus transports more people at any given time," Santos said.
Of the 6,000 buses in Metro Manila, some 1,600 belong to the NEMBO while around 3,500 units are with the IMBOA.
Santos lamented that Fernando did not even call for a public consultation about the new coding scheme.
"A sensitive program like this should be subjected to proper consultation with the affected sector. If the MMDA pushed through with this, there could be a transport crisis in Metro Manila, especially on EDSA," she said.
De la Fuente and Santos warned that they would file charges against any MMDA enforcer who would apprehend buses tomorrow "because there is no legal basis to do so."
"We’ll be consulting with our lawyers for the charges we can file. We ask Chairman Fernando not to pursue this scheme without observing the proper procedures," Santos added.
SOS to Malacañang
Metro Manila and provincial bus operators along with cargo haulers and truckers groups earlier sought the intervention of President Arroyo to stop the "unreasonable and oppressive number-coding on buses."
The presidents of the seven biggest public transport groups made this appeal in a Valentine’s Day letter, which President Arroyo received last Friday at Malacañang.
The two-page petition was signed by IMBOA’s De la Fuente; NEMBO’s Santos; Ramon Castillo of the Metro Manila Bus Operators; Aladin Simundac of the Inter City Bus Operators Association; Michael Potenciano of the Southern Luzon Bus Operators Association; and Alberto Suansing, secretary-general of the Confederation of Land Transportation Organization.
"We strongly protest the prohibition for our buses to ply Metro Manila routes on designated days based on the ending of the assigned plates," they stated in the letter.
"Madam President, the transport industry may not survive the additional breakdown of limiting the schedule of operations of its buses."
The petitioners requested an audience with Mrs. Arroyo and Transport Secretary Leandro Mendoza, who they believe are sympathetic to their plight.