At the same time, the Local Government Code of 1991 mandates the automatic release of the Internal Revenue Allocation of LGUs as part of their share from the national government. Which should make any decent citizen wonder why the MMDA continues to receive and will no doubt continue to ask for its supposed IRA, which runs into the hundreds of millions of pesos yearly.

While not deserving of the privilege, the MMDA continues to avail of the IRA as if it were a genuine LGU even as we see the biggest cities in the country seeking a congressional moratorium on the creation of new cities so as not the deplete their IRA shares.

One might ask: What is the MMDA going to do since it needs funds to operate? But, as the SC opined in the Bel-Air case: "Not infrequently, the government is tempted to take legal shortcuts to solve urgent problems of the people. But even when government is armed with the best of intentions, we cannot allow it to run roughshod over the rule of law."

The tribunal went on to say that when the MMDA charter took effect, "Metropolitan Manila became a ‘special development and administrative region’ and the MMDA a ‘special development authority’ whose functions were without prejudice to the autonomy of the affected local government units.

That being the case, "there is no syllable in (the MMDA charter) that grants the MMDA police power, let alone legislative power" and the MMDA "is an agency created for the purpose of laying down policies and coordinating with the various national government agencies, people’s organizations, non-governmental organizations and the private sector for the efficient and expeditious delivery of basic services in the vast metropolitan area."

In short, the MMDA has no right to enforce any laws much more legislate any into existence. It cannot make or impose traffic laws, it cannot demolish any structure much less build those pink urinals that are not only apparently overpriced but useless to half of the population or install those killer U-turns. It is a coordinating body plain and simple and, if it needs to do something, it should course it through the concerned LGU. Sadly, this is never the case.

But under Fernando, the MMDA not only continues to violate its own charter or R.A. 7924. There seems to be no pretension at all to follow it, in his autistic management style. His critics may rave and rant, but Fernando knows all too well they have other things to do. And, at the end of the day, Fernando will still have his way.

One of its latest projects, for example, is to enforce easement requirements for minor waterways in Pasig City. But it is not because that is what the law says; the MMDA merely wants to build a special road for tricycles. It seems Fernando has stumbled on a cost-free way of expropriating private lands for his own purposes.

The legislators who crafted the MMDA charter envisioned creating a body to deal with the problems of metropolitanization, the continuing concentration of people into major urban centers, in Metro Manila. But instead, Fernando’s ascendance as MMDA chairman has only created a monstrosity whose actions threaten not only the rule of law but the long-term viability of Metro Manila as a center for economic activity in the country and as a major global investment destination.