The Metro Manila Council (MMC) on Tuesday, Sept. 12, said the single-ticketing system (STS), while still on its pilot run, will soon transition into full implementation after the council is able to iron out issues on the digital payment services in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The council held a meeting together with the Regional Development Council (RDC) to tackle various concerns in the metropolis, particularly the status of the STS and the aid being given or to be given by local government units (LGUs) to rice retailers and sellers affected by the national government's rice price cap.

San Juan City Mayor, who is concurrent MMC president and RDC vice chairman Francis Zamora spearheaded the meeting together with Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Romando Artes and other mayors and officials of NCR cities.

"Sa single-ticketing system, tuloy-tuloy naman po yung pag-pipilot natin pero soon magfu-full implementation na tayo. May kaunting lamang pong inaayos which is maganda po habang kaunti pa yung nag-iimplement ay nakikita (The single-ticketing system is still in its pilot implementation but we will soon begin its full implementation. There are just a few more things to be fixed which is good because we are already seeing these issues while only a few cities are implementing it)," Artes said.

The dry run of the single-ticketing system started on May 2 in the following pilot cities:

- Manila
- Quezon City
- Parañaque City
- Muntinlupa City
- Caloocan City
- Valenzuela City
- San Juan City

Zamora said the MMDA had turned over the hand-held devices to be used in the implementation of the STS to the cities in Metro Manila. The devices include the printing of citation tickets, validation and authentication of driver's licenses and vehicle registration, checking demerit points, and the verification if a license or vehicle registration is suspended, canceled, or has an existing alarm that has not yet been resolved by the registrant.

The only issue the MMC needs to resolve is the bond from the digital payment service providers.

"Kanina nga po sa pagupulong, yun ang pinag-usapan na magkaroon po ng common amount ng bond for all 17 LGUs. Kasi, base sa nakikita natin ngayon, kino-compute po nila dun sa average na huli o bayad ng mga violators per LGU. If you do this, it will take a lot of time, so we are calling on the service providers magkaroon na sana ng uniformed amount ng bond (Earlier in the meeting, we discussed the common bond amount for all the 17 LGUs because based on what we are seeing now, they are basing the computation on the average fines of violators per LGU. If you do this it will take a lot of time, so we are calling on the service providers to have a uniform amount of bond)," Zamora explained.

The proposed bond of the service providers is around P12,000, which is lower than the monthly average that San Juan gets.

He added that based on the initial computation of the San Juan finance team, a bond of around P300,000 would be needed. Metro Manila mayors are also pushing for a unified amount.

Another matter tackled in the meeting was the unified convenience fee which varies from P7 to P12.

Chairman Artes stressed that the waiving of the fee is not an option as it is needed for the maintenance of the system.

"May gastos din po kasi yan eh, connection, maintenance ng system, 'yung pagre-remit. So talaga po namang nagkakaroon ng charge yan. So mini-minimize po natin. Yun nga po yung nagpag-usapan sa suggestion po kanina, na instead na 7, 10, 12 pesos, kanina po kausap namin sila nine-negotiate po namin na yung pinakamababang fee which is 7 pesos per transaction na iimpose ng lahat ng payment platforms na kausap namin sa single ticketing system (There are also expenses to be incurred in the implementation of the system which includes its connection, maintenance, and remittance. Hence, the need for it to have a charge which we are doing our best to minimize as much as possible. During our discussion earlier, instead of having a convenience fee of P7, P10, or P12, we negotiated for P7 as the lowest fee per transaction to be imposed on all payment platforms we are talking to for the single ticketing system)," Artes said.

The single-ticketing system aims to streamline the traffic violations and fines of the 16 cities and lone municipality comprising the NCR. It also allows violators to pay their fines using e-wallets and other digital payment platforms on the spot, preventing the need for them to proceed to the city hall to pay for their violation.

Rice price cap aid

Another concern tackled during the joint meeting was the different forms of assistance Metro Manila cities are providing its rice sellers and retailers affected by President Marcos' E.O. 39 or the mandated price ceiling for rice to prevent price manipulation by traders and retailers following the alarming increase in the retail prices of rice.

Effective Sept. 5, the mandated price ceiling for regular milled rice is P41 per kilogram and P45 per kilogram of well-milled rice.

As of Aug. 28, the Department of Agriculture (DA) reported that local regular milled rice in markets in Metro Manila ranged from P42 to P55 per kilogram. Meanwhile, local well-milled rice stood at P48 to P56 per kilogram.

The council said each LGU has its own way of providing assistance to its rice retailers and sellers adversely affected by the order ranging from the distribution of cash assistance to the waiving of their market stall fees.

"Hindi po kasi parepareho ang sitwasyon ng mga LGUs kaya hindi po namin puwede standardize kasi mayroon pong pribado at public na mga markets, especially yung nasa pribado hindi namin puwede saklawan yan so kanya kanya po talaga ng ordinansa gingawa po ng ating mga LGUs (Not all LGUs operate under the same situation. That's the reason why we cannot impose a standardized amount or kind of aid. Each city has public and private markets, hence, the need for the LGU to pass ordinances for the distribution of aid especially to those in private markets)," Artes explained.

Zamora said aside from the P15,000 cash assistance coming from the national government, the San Juan City government also provided P5,000 cash aid to its rice retailers at the Agora Public Market which stared on Sept. 9. They were also given one month free stalls rental.

He thanked the rice retailers and sellers for complying with the President's order.

"We will assess further as the weeks go by. Pag makita naman natin na bumabalik na sa normal ang sitwasyon ng supply at ng presyo, then we can also adjust whatever we are doing. The Department of Agriculture mentioned last Saturday na by the end of September, magkakaroon ng increase sa supply dahil nga po panahon na ng ani (We will assess further as the weeks go by. Once we have observed that the supply and prices of rice are normalizing, then we can also adjust whatever we are doing. The Department of Agriculture mentioned last Saturday that by the end of September, there will be an increase in the supply of rice due to the harvest season)," the mayor explained.