Solon vows to fight proposed expanded number-coding scheme

A party-list lawmaker on Monday raised the possibility of seeking a restraining order if the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) pushes through with its plan to expand the number-coding scheme.

"If the MMDA pursues its plan by actually issuing an order, directive, regulation, or ordinance, I will swiftly challenge it in court and seek a restraining order," 1-Ang Edukasyon Rep. Salvador Belaro Jr. said in a statement.

MMDA chairman Danny Lim last week pitched the expansion plan in order to address the worsening traffic situation in the country.

"So volume problem, talagang kailangan mabawasan 'yan. Siguro pwede namang konting sakripisyo pa para sa lahat. Baka pwedeng gawing two days out of every week ang hindi paggamit ng sasakyan," he said.

Under the proposed two-day number-coding scheme, vehicles with license plate numbers ending in 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be banned on major thoroughfares in Manila on Monday; vehicles with plate numbers ending in 5, 6, 7 and 8 will be banned on Tuesday; and vehicles with plate number ending in 9, 0, 1, and 2 will be banned on Wednesday.

Vehicles with plate numbers ending in 3, 4, 5 and 6 will be banned on Thursday and vehicles with plate numbers ending in 7, 8, 9 and 0 will be banned again on Friday.

But for Belaro, the proposed scheme is unconstitutional as it "is tantamount to unreasonable restraint on use of property without due process of law which is a violation of the due process clause of the 1987 Philippine Constitution."

"Those who can afford an extra vehicle or vehicles to circumvent the two days of coding are well within their rights and financial means to buy new cars. When they do that, we will have more cars instead of fewer cars on the road," he said.

Belaro also argued that the proposal is "anti-poor, anti-middle class."

He urged the MMDA to devise a more sensible plan that is within the bounds of law.

"To the MMDA, I say, as a former constitutional law professor and a former Commissioner of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, that there are limits to what you can do and among those limits are those which the Constitution already provides," Belaro said.

"Please find other ways to solve the traffic debacle that actually make sense and that are legal," he added. —Erwin Colcol/KBK/KVD, GMA News