MMDA Chairman Don Artes (Courtesy of MMDA)

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) assured the public on Monday, May 26, that there will be no duplication of traffic violations recorded under the re-implemented No-Contact Apprehension Policy (NCAP).

MMDA Chairman Romando “Don” Artes admitted that some major thoroughfares under the agency’s jurisdiction still has no closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras so their enforcers will still issue tickets to traffic violators. 

“Hindi po ibig sabihin na ang ating mga enforcers ay hindi na maniniket dahil may mga portions po na mga kalsada na under our jurisdiction na hindi po lahat ay covered na ng CCTV. Ang maaassure lang po namin ay wala pong magiging duplication ‘yun (It does not mean that our enforcers will no longer issue tickets because there are certain portions of the roads under our jurisdiction that are not covered by the CCTV. But we can assure you that there will be no duplication),” he said.

“Iyan naman po kapag inencode sa system ‘yun pong physical apprehension ng aming enforcers, lalalabas naman po kung nacapture na ng CCTV so definitely wala pong magiging duplication ng panghuhuli (If the physical apprehension of our enforcers is encoded in our system, it will automatically alert if the violation has already been captured by the CCTV so definitely there will be no duplication of apprehension),” he added.

The NCAP was reimplemented on Monday after the Supreme Court (SC) lifted on May 20 the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued against the policy in 2022 following a petition filed by various transport groups.

As of 12 noon, the MMDA said that it recorded a total of 479 traffic violations, marking a significant number of apprehensions on the first day of the NCAP reimplementation. 

Artes said the TRO was lifted after the MMDA addressed the issues raised by transport groups challenging the policy’s implementation.

Among the issues raised were the varying penalties for every violation, data privacy, contest mechanism, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for an automatic review of violations.

Artes said that the MMDA is implementing a single-ticketing system for the payment of fines. “With a single ticketing system, lahat na po iyan ay pantay-pantay na, isa na lang ang penalty at ‘yan po ay reasonable (all of them will be equal, there will be one penalty and that will be reasonable).”

He also allayed public fears on data privacy as he explained that the MMDA uses its own system for the implementation of the NCAP. “Wala po kaming third-party provider na nakakaaccess sa pribadong datos ng mga may-ari ng sasakyan (We don’t have a third-party provider that can access the private data of vehicle owners).”

Motorists who would also like to contest their violation may also reach out to the MMDA’s adjudication board through its website. 

“Ito po ay pinadali natin through our website. May iki-click lamang po silang link doon at ifi-fill up ang form. Hindi na po nila kailangan pumunta sa MMDA at pwede po nila irequest ‘yung footage ng pagkakahuli nila para makita po nila for themselves kung valid po ‘yung pagkakahuli (We made it easier through our website. They would just click a link and fill up a form. They no longer need to go to the MMDA officer and they can also request the footage of their apprehension for them to see if it is valid),” Artes said. 

On the use of AI, Artes said that their system can automatically review all apprehensions captured by the CCTV and physically conducted by its enforcers.

“Kanina po noong umaga ako po ay nagobserve at may mga nacapture po ‘yung ating AI through our CCTV cameras na mga violations na upon review ay in-invalidate tulad po ng mga ambulansya na dumadaan sa bus way na allowed, ‘yung mga ganoon pong instance at ‘yung mga tolerable po na pagchange ng lane, ‘yun pong pagtapak sa mga linya na hindi naman po talaga violation although naka-capture ng ating AI (Earlier this morning when I observed, our AI captured violations through our CCTVs that were invalidated upon review. These include ambulances accessing bus way as it is allowed, instances like that as well as tolerable switching of lanes, stepping on the lines. These are not really violations but captured by our AI),” he said.