By Jel Santos
Days before the shift to General Community Quarantine (GCQ), the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said that the number coding scheme will remain lifted as the modified coding scheme will not immediately take effect on Monday, June 1.
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) (MANILA BULLEITN)
Earlier, MMDA said they are eyeing to implement the modified scheme by June 1, on the first day of GCQ, to limit the number of vehicles on the road as many employees are expected to return to work.
Under the modified scheme, coded-vehicles are allowed to travel on major roads.
Assistant Secretary Celine Pialago, MMDA spokesperson, said the coding scheme is still lifted next week, from June 1 to 5, 2020.
"Modified Number Coding Scheme will not be implemented yet. We will announce soon when will it take effect," she said.
"As per advise by our legal team, new Council Regulation will be effective immediately upon publication in two newspapers of general circulation and filing with ONAR (Office of the National Administrative Register in UP Law Center)," Pialago explained.
The MMDA exempted medical frontliners from the modified scheme after reaping backlash from netizens.
It can be recalled that MMDA General Manager Jose Arturo Garcia earlier said that even frontliners will not be exempted from the modified scheme, but later toned down, and exempted medical frontliners.
Garcia said the modified scheme was unanimously agreed upon by all the 17 mayors in the metropolis during the Metro Manila Council (MMC) teleconference meeting last Tuesday night.