House adopts 2 measures aimed at traffic issues, transpo shortage amid pandemic

The House of Representatives on Wednesday adopted two resolutions which essentially aim to resolve traffic issues and alleviate the transportation shortage in the country amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

On the last day of session before Congress goes on a holiday break, the House adopted House Resolution 1417, which urges the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to defer the implementation of the cashless toll payments until all systems are fully operational and are interoperable.

The chamber likewise approved House Resolution 1409, which calls on the DOTr to increase the number of road-worthy public utility vehicles (PUVs) to address the transportation shortage in the country amid the health crisis.

According to the House Committee on Transportation, from which the resolutions came, there are more than six million vehicles registered in Metro Manila, Region III, and Region IV-A, yet data shows that many have yet to install radio-frequency identification (RFID) stickers.

The committee also noted reports of long queues at toll plazas and RFID installation sites, which then resulted in heavy traffic as seen in NLEX toll plazas within Valenzuela.

"The Committee on Transportation has determined that it would be best if cash payments and cash lanes would still be allowed while a cashless payment system is not yet fully operational as it suggested that a timeline of gradual phase out of cash lanes should also be implemented," read House Resolution 1417.

The panel likewise recommended that the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas audit the cashless payment systems to determine their interoperability before its full implementation.

Meanwhile, the Committee on Transportation, following a series of meetings to discuss the public transportation policies of the government during the COVID-19 pandemic, found out that the current supply of public transportation services is not enough to address the demand of the gradual reopening of the economy.

It saw the need to increase the number of PUVs, aside from the Bus Augmentation Program serving the EDSA Loop, considering that the railway system is only operating at an average of not more than 30% of its regular ridership before the pandemic.

"The current number of PUVs on the road is not commensurate to the requirements of the plan to revive the economy as evidenced by the long queues of commuters during peak hours waiting for public transport," read House Resolution 1409.

"All the stakeholders... share the view that adequate transportation services to ferry the workforce should be provided so that the nation can pursue economic recovery, provided that all requisites to ensure prevention of the spread of the virus are put in place and complied with," it added.

Speaker Lord Allan Velasco has earlier urged the DOTr to extend the deadline for the installation of stickers on vehicles until March 30, 2021.

This, he said, is "to give all our motorists enough time to secure the stickers for the cashless payment system given that we are still in a pandemic where movement of people is limited." — BM, GMA News