200 seized buses fill MMDA impounding areas

MANILA, Philippines - With its drive against “colorum” buses in full swing, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said yesterday its impounding areas are nearly full as its enforcers have seized more than 200 buses.

According to MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino, they are looking at using the compounds of flood control pumping stations as alternate impounding areas.

Tolentino said they are eyeing the compound of the Libertad pumping station in Pasay City as a possible site. The MMDA at present maintains three impounding areas: Ultra 1 in Pasig City and Las Piñas (for vehicles with administrative traffic violations such as unregistered and out-of-line buses) and Ultra 2 for stalled vehicles.

According to the MMDA, an average of 15 to 20 buses are impounded daily by MMDA traffic enforcers since the crackdown began last Aug. 22 with the implementation of the “bus tagging” scheme.

Under the scheme, passenger buses plying routes that pass through EDSA are required to have their license numbers painted on their roofs, sides and backs for easy identification by traffic enforcers and by the MMDA’s 68 CCTV cameras spread across EDSA.

The vehicle-tagging scheme was designed by the MMDA as part of its drive to weed out colorum or unregistered PUVs in the streets of Metro Manila, particularly along EDSA.

The Metro Manila Council (MMC), the policy-making arm of the MMDA, approved of the scheme last February which called for the tagging of all registered and franchised public utility vehicles to include buses, jeepneys, taxis, Asian utility vehicles (AUVs), school buses, tourist buses and cargo trucks plying major and secondary roads in Metro Manila.

Under the scheme, the license numbers of PUVs will be painted differently: yellow for city buses plying EDSA; orange for city buses not plying EDSA; red for provincial buses plying EDSA; violet for provincial buses not plying EDSA; brown for public utility jeepneys; blue for metered taxis, green for non-metered or garage taxis and AUVs; gray or silver for school buses; pink for tourist or shuttle buses, and gold for cargo trucks.