In a statement issued by the Department of Transportation, secretary Giovanni Lopez wrote that on-duty ambulances are authorized to use the EDSA Busway. Lopez was prompted to reiterate the department’s November 2023 policy after an ambulance carrying a cancer patient was recently apprehended by the Special Action and Intelligence Committee for Transportation (SAICT).
The cancer patient was en route to a check-up, which did not qualify as a valid use case for SAICT. In videos circulating on social media, the apprehending officer was quoted as saying, “Ang papayagan na lang po natin ay iyong mga nag-aagaw buhay na mga pasyente.”
Lopez clarified that the standing policy does not discriminate between on-duty ambulances that are operating within emergencies and non-emergencies. The officer has since been relieved of his duty as Special Operations Group Head for SAICT.
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He will now need to explain his actions to the department, while SAICT personnel assigned to EDSA will need to be reoriented in the policy and other related regulations.
In November 2023, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) also stated that on-duty ambulances are allowed to use the EDSA Busway. Around the same time, the MMDA had also banned government vehicles from using the exclusive lanes. This excludes convoys of top-ranking public officials, such as the President, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
