MANILA, Philippines - A Visayas congressman urged authorities yesterday to close all bus terminals, particularly those of provincial buses, along EDSA to ease traffic congestion along this busy highway.
Northern Samar Rep. Emil Ong said areas along EDSA from Caloocan City to Pasay City, where bus terminals are located, are traffic bottlenecks because of buses and passengers going in and out.
In most cases, there are even bus units parked along the road, he said.
He said the stretches of EDSA in Cubao and Kamias-Kamuning in Quezon City are among the areas where bus terminals contribute to traffic congestion.
Ong suggested that bus terminals be relocated to the fringes of Metro Manila to ease congestion along EDSA and other parts of the metropolis.
He said buses would also be spared from the number coding scheme of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) if they do not enter the metropolis.
He stressed that transferring bus terminals to the outskirts of Metro Manila would complement MMDA’s coding scheme.
He noted that in the past, there have been plans to remove these terminals in the National Capital Region, but that these have not materialized.
Before the effort to decongest the region of buses loses steam, the MMDA, the Department of Transportation and Communications, and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board should include the transfer of bus terminals in their campaign, he said.
At the same time, Ong supported the authorities’ plan to penalize bus operators who joined the transport strike last Monday.
He deplored the action of bus owners as “unpatriotic since they intentionally staged the strike paralyze public transportation.”
He said the operators even tried to fool the public by claiming their drivers did not report for work and they could not summon them because the drivers did not have mobile phones. He said no one believed the bus owners’ story.
He said the franchises of the operators who participated in Monday’s strike should at least be suspended, if there is no enough basis to cancel them.
Another congressman, Cesar Sarmiento of Catanduanes, said the grant of a franchise to a bus operator is subject to certain conditions, including serving the best interest of the public.
“What they did is a violation of the terms and conditions of their franchises. They should be subjected to sanctions. Otherwise, we will always be at the mercy of bus operators and the government will be seen as lacking the political will to enforce its rules,” he said. Sarmiento said in the past, the authorities wilted under strike threats from bus and jeepney operators.
“I think this time, the government should drive home the message that we really mean business, and that these operators have no choice but to obey our rules and serve the best interest of the public,” he added. - By Jess Diaz
