The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and Department of Transportation (DOTr) have started talks on regulations for electric motor vehicles amid their growing numbers on public roads.
“The proliferation of e-vehicles has become a cause for concern,” MMDA acting chair Romando Artes said in a press conference at MMDA head office in Pasig City. “The [LGUs] have laid down their concerns, existing ordinances, regulations, and programs concerning e-vehicles. These will be reconciled with the policies of the national government,” he added
Artes, Land Transportation Office chief Vigor Mendoza II, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board chair Teofilo Gaudiz III, transport assistant secretary for road transport noninfrastructure Jose Lim IV, and other officials met with MMDA officials to discuss existing laws, policies, guidelines, ordinances, and programs on electric vehicles for both national and local government units.
Mendoza said the registration of e-vehicles and requiring users to obtain driver’s licenses were among the possible measures they were considering.
E-vehicle units, e-tricycles, e-bikes, e-pedicabs, e-scooters, push carts, and kuliglig on roads not only slow down traffic, but also pose threats to public safety, said Artes.
The vehicles that have so far been exempt from most rules and regulations of road use could’ve avoided this fate if their owners and drivers had only behaved properly, contributing to the smooth flow of traffic and general road safety instead of serving as road hazards, simply because no driver’s licenses or vehicle registration was required for its use. Now that national and local government units have decided to take action, it would seem that their carefree days are numbered.
Hopefully all other sectors can learn the lessons from this experience, and citizens use the opportunity to prove to the government that they are capable of self-regulation instead of forcing crackdowns upon themselves.*
