The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has moved implementation of a modified number coding scheme in the National Capital Region (NCR) to June 8 from June 1, according to general manager Jose Arturo Garcia.
Garcia said in a television interview said the guidelines have to be published in newspapers first.
READ: Modified number coding scheme in place by June 1
Makati is, however, already implementing a modified number coding scheme starting June 1. Vehicles with two or more passengers are exempted from the scheme and will not be apprehended, Makati mayor Abigail Binay said in an advisory.
Under MMDA’s modified number coding scheme, coded-vehicles are allowed on major roads as long as vehicles carry at least one passenger to maximize the use of the vehicle.
“Vehicles carrying more than one passenger, depending on the guidelines of the IATF-EID [Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases] on allowed passengers per type of vehicles, will be exempted from the existing number coding scheme. We want the motorists to maximize the use of private vehicles on the road,” Garcia said in an earlier statement.
The modified number coding scheme was among measures approved by the Metro Manila Council, the governing and policy-making body of MMDA comprised of mayors in Metro Manila, as NCR is placed under less restrictive quarantine starting June 1.
NCR, Regions II, III, IV-A, VII, and Pangasinan, Zamboanga City, and Davao City will transition to general community quarantine (GCQ) from June 1 to 15 while other areas in the country will be placed under modified GCQ (MGCQ).
GCQ is a less restricted form of community quarantine than modified enhanced community quarantine. MGCQ, meanwhile, is a more relaxed version of GCQ and is the transition phase prior to the “new normal.”
Medical frontliners will be exempted from the new measure, and they will have the privilege to use their coded-vehicles without being apprehended, according to Garcia.
The number coding scheme has been suspended since March 13 as Luzon entered into a community quarantine to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease.
