The Motorcycle Rights Organization has won a small but sweet victory against the implementation of the Motorcycle Lanes. Nope the dreaded lane is not suspended but the rules of it’s implementation has finally been released and they’re quite telling.
The brouhaha started last Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2012 when the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) enforced the Motorcycle Lane along EDSA without any Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRRs). The graphics shown on TV as well as reported by those apprehended by the MMDA revealed that aside from apprehensions based on the lane violations, the MMDA was enforcing a long suspended Land Transportation Office (LTO) AHS-2008-015 which rendered motorcycle modifications, among other violations, illegal. Motorcycle Philippines (MotorcyclePhilippines.Com) was there when this was suspended so we were up in arms when the MMDA began using the Administrative Order as a basis for apprehension along EDSA.
After several private exchanges with MRO head Jobert Bolanos, Atty. Yves Gonzalez of the MMDA finally released the formal rules and regulations last Friday, effective today Monday, February 20, 2012, and it does not include the aforementioned violations. The MMDA has admitted that they were not aware that the Administrative Order was suspended. The MMDA being an executive body cannot create any law but will have to rely on existing laws/ordinances and base its action on that.
We are still in the position that the Motorcycle Lane is dangerous to everyday users. The infrastructure of Metro Manila is just not ready for a lane for Motorcycle Use. But, in the meantime, this will have to do. This will make things easier for our brothers on the road and lessen the chance of them being used as targets for illegal apprehensions.
According to Jobert Bolanos, the rules apply both to the Commonwealth and Macapagal Ave. Motorcycle Lanes as well.
Thank God for small victories.
TDO Memorandum Re Motorcycle Lanes