MMDA: License tags now required for AUVs, tourist buses

MANILA, Philippines - The implementation of the vehicle paint-tagging scheme for non-metered Asian Utility Vehicles (AUVs), shuttle service vehicles and tourist buses will start on Dec. 12, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) announced yesterday.

The 10,000-member Alliance of Concerned Transport Operators (ACTO) ,headed by Efren de Luna, expressed full support for the paint-tagging scheme.

“Our main objective in implementing the tagging scheme is to eradicate the operation of colorum (or unregistered) vehicles. ACTO’s voluntary compliance to it will definitely boost our campaign as it shows willingness to police their own ranks,” MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino said.

“I am hopeful that other transport groups will follow ACTO’s (move) and have their units painted as early as now to avoid any inconvenience once we start with the full implementation,” he added.

Under the scheme, the license numbers of a public utility vehicle will be painted on its roof, sides and back, for easy identification by traffic enforcers and by the closed-circuit television cameras of the MMDA.

As for provincial buses that also use EDSA in leaving or returning to their terminals located in Metro Manila, MMDA Traffic Discipline Office chief Yves Gonzalez said their agency have yet to set a date for the implementation of the paint-tagging scheme.

The MMDA said before the paint-tagging scheme is implemented on provincial buses, the Metro Manila Council, the policy-making arm of the MMDA must rule on the request of provincial bus operators that instead of paint-tagging their units, they be allowed to use instead the radio frequency identification (RFID) chips.

Last Oct. 28, the MMDA decided to indefinitely suspend the implementation of the paint-tagging scheme on provincial buses following strong opposition from provincial bus operators. The paint-tagging scheme on provincial buses was supposed to have been implemented last Nov. 7.

The paint-tagging scheme for Metro Manila buses was already implemented by the MMDA on Aug. 15 last year.

Violators of the scheme were fined P500 each, with second-time offenders’ franchise to operate suspended by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.