MMDA will no longer allow bus drivers with multiple traffic violations to get behind the wheel

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will no longer allow bus drivers with multiple traffic violations to get behind the wheel starting on Monday, March 9, 2020.

This was the agreement reached after agency officials led by General Manager Jojo Garcia met with city bus operators and representatives from the Land Transportation Office (LTO), Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to discuss actions to be taken against public utility bus drivers who are habitual traffic violators.

“A representative from LTO will join our personnel at our Bus Management Dispatch offices to screen city bus drivers. They will not be dispatched if they are included in the list of habitual violators. Their driver’s license will be confiscated by LTO as MMDA is not allowed to do so,” Garcia said in a press conference held today at the MMDA headquarters in Makati.

“We are serious about this matter. It's about time to suspend erring drivers with alarming number of apprehensions,” Garcia emphasized.

Just last month, the MMDA listed a total of 12,000 names of drivers with multiple traffic violations. However, only about 2,500 or 20% responded to the show cause order issued to them by the LTO while the remaining 80% were all no-shows. “We asked the bus operators to cooperate and they are willing to have their drivers undergo a retraining program. We need to strictly enforce this and we want them off the road,” Garcia stressed.

Under Republic Act 4136, also known as the Land Transportation and Traffic Code of the Philippines, a driver who commits at least three times of the same violation(s) during a 12-month period may face automatic suspension of his/her driver’s license for at least one to two years.