ito na ba ang mundo?

Does this sound familiar to you? Personnel Officer Antonio Pagulayan clarifies MMDA policies:

note: It seems that Antonio Pagulayan now has a new designation.

MMDA hotline (136) or Metrobase @ 0920-9389861 or 0920-938 9875 and ask for an Inspectorate. They will send inspectors to the place where MMDA officers are extorting even while you are arguing out of your apprehension.

MMDA Officers are not allowed to group together in order to apprehend. They are not even allowed to stand together in groups of 2 or more. The only time they are allowed to work together is for special operations (probably when they apprehend a group of buses smokebelching)

Swerving is NOT a traffic violation. Moving one lane to the left of the right is not swerving, no matter where on the road you do it. And it is even less of a violation when you do it with a SIGNAL. Swerving is defined as shifting 2 or more lanes very quickly.

Sadly, using the yellow lane is a traffic violation and will get you a ticket. However, buses are really not allowed to get out of the yellow lane, so if you see selective apprehension of private cars only, you may complain.

MMDA has confirmed that your license MAY NOT BE CONFISCATED for a traffic apprehension. The only time they can do it is you are part of an accident, or if it is your third violation and you have not paid your fines yet. They are only allowed to give you a ticket, which you can contest.He recommends actually receiving a ticket in some instances, so that you can report the officer who did it.

Also, you are free to ask any of these officers for their “mission order,” which is written by their supervisor. If they apprehend you for a violation that is not in their mission order for the day, you can report them and they will receive disciplinary action.

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I don’t drive so I have never personally been apprehended by an MMDA officer. I have, however, been in the car when the car was flagged down. There are a lot of things about traffic rules that annoy me. For instance, the selective apprehension is one that really gets to me because they don’t catch the first violator but instead, chooses to apprehend anyone who thought it was okay and followed. An example is when the light turns yellow while you’re crossing the intersection. While you’re crossing ha, and not before you crossed. On top of that, they reason that well, they couldn’t catch everyone anyway so they chose you.

While the information above indicates that MMDA officers cannot confiscate your license, how about the city policemen? We were once apprehended by a QC policeman who said we entered a one-way street. The driver reasoned that he thought it was a two-way street because he saw the tricycles weave in and out through there. The apprehending officer claimed that nope, it was one-way. The driver tried to ask for his name and designation but the officer declined and confiscated the driver’s license. Iba daw and batas sa QC.

Now I don’t know whether that’s true–as far as I’m concerned, traffic rules are the same wherever in Metro Manila you are unless otherwise stated on traffic signs. I think the MMDA and all the Metro Manila cities should have a driver’s manual of traffic rules and regulations that you’re required to possess in your vehicle at all times. That way,the motorist can point to  the particular regulation if they’re trying to contest an apprehension.

I understand the most motorists just pay off the traffic officers to avoid the hassle of dealing with them. But I find that asking whether the officer has had merienda yet is far more stressful than just taking the ticket and paying for it at Metrobank. (That is, if you really did violate the law.) May online banking na ngayon, may phone banking at ATM banking pa. Paying it is easier! But if they’re wrong, then I think contesting it is called for. The most telling argument I’ve heard for just paying off these parasites is that the motorist just doesn’t want the hassle of complaining/contesting. “Baka balikan pa ako,” they say. Can you imagine being afraid of a TRAFFIC officer? I wonder if the MMDA or city police forces have a rule that says that if a traffic officer is complained three times, then they’re suspended pending an investigation. Or maybe they’re removed from that designation. In a perfect world, the MMDA/police forces have a seriously straightlaced Internal Affairs Division that takes pride in catching the crooks among the upstanding officers. I’d like to hope that there would be more upstanding officers than crooked ones.

I remember thinking to myself that perhaps the best way to be sure about these apprehensions would really be to have more CCTVs around. Or maybe you should have your own dashboard cam to catch the offending officer. Haha. Ay, all this thinking is giving me a headache.

edit: To view MMDA traffic violations and their corresponding penalties depending on frequency, click here.