Valenzuela City Mayor Weslie "Wes" Gatchalian has disagreed with the appeal of Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Teofilo Guadiz III to suspend the implementation of the No Contact Apprehension Policy (NCAP).

Guadiz III earlier made his call to the local government units of cities where the NCAP is in effect to consider suspending it to give way to a thorough review of the policy.

He said that the NCAP's guidelines should be improved, adding that he received complaints from public utility vehicle operators regarding how the fines are settled under the policy.

According to Gatchalian, the NCAP is a measure meant to lessen human subjectivity and to make traffic management more efficient and graft-free. It helps eliminate the temptation on traffic enforcers to engage in corrupt activities like "kotong (bribery)."

He said that suspending the policy will do more harm than good, adding that traffic apprehension in Valenzuela will be back to its gruesome heydays, while the discipline instilled among the motorists will be gone to naught.

The mayor also said that NCAP has been instrumental in avoiding road-related arguments.

According to Gatchalian, the city has an active Traffic Violation Adjudication Committee where motorists and operators can formally lodge their objections against the notice of violation.

The local government said that the complaints can be filed within five working days upon receipt.

However, it added that exemption to fines is warranted only under some circumstances, such as if the vehicle was stolen at the time the violation was committed; the driver is not the owner; if the vehicle was already sold to another party; and during emergency.

Gatchalian laid down suggestions for NCAP's improvement such as making it a metro-wide initiative with uniform fines and rules, as well as strengthening a uniform adjudication committee.

He also said that operators may report their erring drivers to the LTO for adjudication and to transfer the record of the policy violation so that it may suspend or hold the driver’s license renewal until the fines were settled.

The mayor advised motorists to adhere to the traffic rules to avoid violations.

The local government implemented the NCAP in September 2019, where 47 speed camera systems with full high-definition technology were placed in the city's key intersections to detect traffic violators.

It added that a total of 201,037 erring motorists were apprehended through NCAP as of the end of July, majority were non-residents of Valenzuela.

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LTO seeks suspension, corrective measures in NCAP implementation