San Juan City Mayor and Metro Manila Council (MMC) President Francis Zamora announced on Tuesday, Dec. 13, that the council's plan to introduce a standardized traffic citation system will be finalized next year.
During the launch of its smart TVs and fiber optic internet connection in the 13 public schools in San Juan held at the Pinaglabanan Elementary School, Zamora said that 20 common violations of motorists would be included in the new proposed system.
"For example, before, beating the red light corresponds to different fines in San Juan and Pasig. But now, with a standardized system, the same fine for a specific violation will be imposed in all cities,” Zamora said.
The single ticketing system was first proposed by Zamora during the joint session of the MMC and the Regional Development Council (RDC) which he also co-chairs held on Nov. 26 to ease the burden on motorists.
The project aims for a unified ticketing system with the same amount charged for penalties for several common traffic violations in all Metro Manila LGUs, with the MMDA and the Land Transportation Office (LTO) immediately tagged in the digital records to make sure drivers cannot renew their licenses or declare them lost just to evade payment.
It also allows motorists to not surrender their driver's license to traffic enforcers and instead, pay their fines via payment centers all over the country.
"The biggest convenience with the new system is that they won’t need to come back to the local government where the violation occurred to pay the fine,” Zamora noted.
The mayor warned that despite the prohibition of the confiscation of licenses, violators cannot refuse to pay their dues.
"If you refuse to pay the fine, the amount that you would need to pay will increase over time because you’re hiding from the law. Or if you think you don’t have to pay because you’re not renewing your license anytime soon, you would need to pay a big amount by the time you need to renew your license in the future,” Zamora explained
In an MMC meeting held on Saturday, Dec. 10, Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Jay Art Tugade said the LTO has already laid down the technical requirements for the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and LGUs to issue traffic violation tickets to tag and record traffic violations.
“Once the single ticketing system is finalized, the LTO will strictly implement its demerit point system to be able to properly monitor driver’s license records. License should only be issued to deserving and qualified drivers,” Tugade said.