BF is MMDA

The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is one government agency that has been the object of ire by some Metro Manila Mayors for obvious reasons. Chairman Bayani "BF" Fernando is one pro-active and hands on head the MMDA has ever had since this body was created by Republic Act 7924 in 1994.

The MMDA is in the center anew of controversy when the Supreme Court (SC) ruled with finality on a pending petition which questioned the powers of this government agency to confiscate drivers’ license over traffic infractions.

In the SC ruling, the High Tribunal cited Section 5 F of RA 7924 which authorized the MMDA to confiscate, suspend, or revoke drivers’ licenses is an "unauthorized exercise of its police power."

In fairness to the MMDA, the agency had stopped this practice after they lost the case when this was first questioned in the case filed against the MMDA by lawyer Dante Garin at the Regional Trial Court in Paranaque City.

While they appealed the case to the SC, the MMDA has been implementing the traffic violation receipt (TVR) where the offender must pay the fine at the banks. It was a scheme enforced by BF in a bid to reduce incidence, if not eliminate, the nefarious practice of mulcting by a few erring MMDA traffic aides.

Several cities like Manila and Makati, headed by Mayors Lito Atienza and Jejomar Binay, have implemented their own traffic ticketing schemes through local ordinances passed and approved by their respective local legislative councils. Mayors Atienza and Binay have openly and publicly opposed BF in many of the MMDA plans and projects, including the chairman’s previous proposal for a unified traffic ticketing system.

I am not exactly a fan of MMDA traffic enforcers, especially when I’m caught in monstrous traffic jams which they create, wittingly or unwittingly, whenever they turn off the traffic lights and do it manually.

With the mega problems in Metro Manila like traffic jams, I think it would do well for all these officials to work together for the common good rather than kick each other over their political differences.

I am not a lawyer nor do I have any legal expertise, but this specific provision in the MMDA charter was passed and approved by Congress under RA 7924. By the way, RA 7924 was principally authored in Congress by then Rep. Feliciano Belmonte Jr. who is now in his second term as Mayor of Quezon City. Under RA 7924, the MMDA was placed under the Office of the President and its chairman was given a Cabinet rank position.

As it is right now, BF is counting on Congress where there are a number of pending bills that either seek re-definition of the functions and powers of the MMDA under its Congress-approved charter or abolish this agency all together. BF’s chief ally in this regard is Marikina Rep. Del de Guzman. Mayor Binay’s political ally, Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin, on the other hand, filed the bill to abolish the MMDA.

With around 8,000 personnel employed in the MMDA, I think a redefinition of the MMDA charter could also help BF to streamline his agency.

No less than our country’s 1987 Constitution recognized the MMDA as a political subdivision. The MMDA was created and given its own mandate by RA 7924 that carved it out from the former Metro Manila Commission headed by an appointed Governor, former First Lady, Mrs. Imelda Marcos.

BF inherited these problems when President Arroyo first appointed him as MMDA Chairman in 2001. He was on his third and last term as Mayor of Marikina City when Mrs. Arroyo tapped him to head the MMDA.

Since BF took over the helms of the MMDA, this agency has done a lot of improvements, not only in terms of better traffic management but has also been able to show to the public where their taxes paid to the government have been used.

It was only during the time of BF that I learned that the MMDA actually enjoys budgetary allocations from the national government for the massive infrastructure development that we now see all around Metro Manila — from pink fences to pink footbridges — and pink public urinals for men.

If there is one Arroyo administration official who has the political will, BF is the hands down winner. And this has been validated no less by opinion surveys among the best performing Cabinet members of Mrs. Arroyo. BF has consistently topped the approval rating. In the most recent survey, the MMDA Chairman posted a plus 53 percent approval rating. And mind you, this was a national average of the MMDA chief, that even people outside Metro Manila approved the way BF does his work in this agency.

Could this be any indication that BF can now finally take the national scene as a candidate for higher office in the near future?

This was the ribbing of our colleagues to BF in the Tuesday Club yesterday at the EDSA Shangrila in Mandaluyong City when he handed out his Christmas giveaways of a pen holder which is actually a replica of the controversial MMDA pink male urinals, without the stink. I did a feature story about this which appears in our front page today. When I showed it to our executive editor Amy Pamintuan, she had a good laugh.

It reminded me of that Christmas time when former Defense Secretary Fidel Ramos, who was then still a Cabinet member of ex-President Corazon Aquino. The personalized Christmas gift of Ramos already gave us the hint he had moist eyes set at the presidency during those days. History is replete with such examples of men with higher goals in life. BF is no exception. But if it would mean good governance, then let all those with such ambitions show their stuff now, not later.

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