EDITORIAL - Reviving NCAP

Several factors led to the long suspension of the No-Contact Apprehension Policy. The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority must ensure that these factors, particularly the unreasonable steepness of the fines, are addressed as the NCAP is resumed next week.

The Supreme Court lifted its temporary restraining order issued in August 2022 only on the NCAP administered by the MMDA, but not the ones operated by several local government units in Metro Manila in partnership with a private company, QPax Traffic Systems Inc.

Several transport groups challenged the legality of the NCAP. Also among the petitioners is lawyer Juman Paa, who complained that he was fined a whopping P20,000 under NCAP by the city of Manila.

Such steep fines became common at the height of the NCAP implementation by QPax. Motorists also complained about the difficulty of paying the fine and arguing their case when they thought they did not break any traffic rules. The exorbitant fines caused the uproar among transport groups, delivery riders and even private motorists.

Merely having the front of a vehicle jut into the yellow box junction by even a few inches when stopping at an intersection earned thousands of pesos in fines. This can be a challenge in large intersections with slow-moving traffic, and especially with the countdown timers in traffic lights removed by the MMDA and several LGUs – the better for trapping motorists and collecting fines.

In the city of Manila, traffic lights with no countdown timers were installed even at junctions of minor streets that rarely see heavy traffic. Such schemes were seen as mainly fund-raising NCAP traps rather than road safety schemes.

The MMDA has pointed out that it was not the one that imposed the exorbitant fines, but LGUs that implemented their own NCAP schemes. QPax, at the time headed by Manolo Steven Ona, collected the larger share of the fines. Critics questioned the constitutionality of outsourcing a law enforcement function to the private sector.

MMDA officials have stressed that they did not get such complaints when they launched the NCAP along major thoroughfares over a decade before the LGUs implemented their money-making versions. But it was the MMDA that removed many countdown timers on traffic lights. Those timers must be restored as the MMDA installs more NCAP surveillance cameras.

The NCAP is supposed to promote safe driving and improve traffic flow. No one will argue with the need for these, but the devil is always in the implementation. Repeating the NCAP abuses can result in public discontent not just with the MMDA but with the government in general.