It appears bus commuters aren’t the only ones who think that day one of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s (MMDA) provincial bus ban dry run could have gone smoother.
Asked for an assessment of the dry run’s first day, MMDA spokesperson Celine Pialago said: “It is not successful.” The official pointed out two main reasons things didn’t go as planned.
“First, we received this preliminary injunction that stops us from performing a particular act,” Pialago said. “Technically speaking, we are prohibited from implementing the policy.”
“Second, the dry run is voluntary. We cannot force all bus operators to participate because of this court order,” she explained. “Yet some provincial buses still unload passengers at our interim terminal because they committed to it beforehand. But the figures will show there is a lack of greater commitment, which is okay with us.”
Regarding whether or not the MMDA would scrap the policy’s dry run, Pialago said the agency doesn’t need to as it has not yet been given a proper opportunity to prove the bus ban’s effectiveness.
“We don’t need to scrap the voluntary dry run of the provincial bus ban because we were not given enough chance to prove the effectiveness of the policy in the first place.”
How are you finding the effects of the dry run? Has it made moving around Metro Manila any smoother?
