Starting on Monday, May 26, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will reimplement the No-Contact Apprehension Policy (NCAP) not only along EDSA and C-5 Road but also on all the roads where the agency has jurisdiction.

MMDA chairman Don Artes also disclosed that they will be installing a thousand more closed-circuit television (CCTVs) in various parts of Metro Manila to further boost the NCAP implementation.

“We will be implementing it on Monday on all the roads under our jurisdiction, particularly EDSA, C5, Commonwealth (Avenue), Ortigas (Avenue), Roxas Boulevard and including the Mabuhay Lanes,” said Artes in an interview over GMA’s Unang Hirit.

On Tuesday, May 20, the Supreme Court lifted the temporary restraining order (TRO) it issued on Aug. 30, 2022 against the implementation of the NCAP following the petition filed by transport groups.

Artes said there is actually nothing new with the implementation, explaining that the CCTVs will take charge of tagging motor vehicles that violated traffic rules and regulations.

“Basically, it means that instead of our enforcers apprehending the violators, it will be the CCTV which will do the job and the notice of the violations will be sent to the registered address of vehicle owners at the Land Transportation Office,” said Artes.

And as traffic jams are expected with the scheduled rehabilitation of EDSA in June this year, Artes explained that NCAP will be of big help since violators will no longer be flagged down for the issuance of tickets.

He explained that flagging down violators has a domino effect on traffic since it takes a few minutes and some lanes to be disturbed as the vehicle with violation would be asked to pull over.

What to do in case of violations

In the event that a motorist received a notice of violation, Artes said due process will still be observed since they would be given the opportunity to contest through the MMDA;’s Facebook page and website.

All that the motorists could do, according to Artes, is to fill out a form that would be provided.

“So there’s no need for them to go to the MMDA office, they could do it online and we could even send the video of the actual footage of the violation,” said Artes,

 Flexible implementation

On the part of the MMDA, Artes assured the public that all violations will be reviewed by their personnel before the notice of violation is sent to the motorists.

He said a review is necessary since the artificial intelligence that tags the violation is so strict that it fails to consider some factors that may justify the violation.

For instance, the AI in CCTV would tag a motorist for swerving violation and Artes said the swerving could be justified due to an obstruction that was not put into the AI system.

Why NCAP was stopped

Transport groups filed a petition before the Supreme Court to question the legality of the NCAP wherein the respondents were the Land Transportation Office, MMDA, and the five local government units in Metro Manila that implemented the NCAP— Manila, Quezon City, Valenzuela, Muntinlupa, and Parañaque.

In their petition, the transport group argued that the NCAP implementation is unconstitutional since it denies the vehicle owners the right to due process since all the violation receipts are sent to the registered address of the vehicle owners even if other people are driving their motor vehicles.

The groups added that NCAP provisions impose unreasonable conditions that include non-renewal of the vehicle registration until such time that the fines are settled, and that the NCAP implementation makes innocent third persons liable for traffic violations.