MMDA gives amnesty
to delinquent PU drivers

THE Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has decided to grant an amnesty to jeepney, bus and taxi drivers with unsettled traffic fines from 1995 up to February this year as part of the overall plan of the agency’s preparation to shift to the single-traffic ticketing system or the Metro Traffic Ticketing (MTT) this month.

MMDA General Manager Robert Nacianceno said the agency’s Traffic Operations Center (TOC) under executive director Angelito Vergel de Dios have already readied the final draft of the implementing rules and regulation (IRR) governing the grant of amnesty to PUV drivers with unredeemed traffic violation receipts (TVRs) after it was approved by MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando.

"Under this plan, drivers with outstanding traffic violation receipts will only pay the lowest fine indicated in one of his overdue traffic citation tickets," Nacianceno said.

He added that drivers whose amnesty applications, done in writing, have been approved would also have to attend a seminar on traffic rules and regulations.

De Dios added that the program also covers the exclusion of the traffic offender from the "alarm list" of the MMDA.

Vehicles in the "alarm list" are prevented from being registered by its owner unless the outstanding fines and penalties are paid to the MMDA. These vehicles will also be impounded once the driver is caught violating traffic rules, and a penalty of P2,000 is imposed in addition to the unsettled fines.

The driver is also prevented from renewing his license until he has fully settled his violations with the MMDA.

Not covered under the amnesty program are drivers of "colorum" vehicles, drivers without the proper license, those who violate the truck ban and unauthorized provincial buses.

The decision to grant the proposed amnesty was arrived at following last week’s meeting by Fernando with PUV drivers and operators who had sought the MMDA chief’s intervention on the problem of their unpaid traffic fines problem.