Proof of parking

Tasked to unclog heavy traffic along EDSA, the PNP Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) has proposed to decongest streets all over the Philippines by prohibiting the sale of motor vehicles to people without garages in their homes.

At least one Metro Manila mayor has agreed to the proposal, suggesting to also ban   public utility vehicles like taxis, buses and jeepneys whose drivers and operators have no access to permanent parking spaces.  The PNP-HPG proposal is certainly draconian and it would surely require a law passed by Congress to be implemented.

Even if adopted, it would also  face serious challenges and opposition before the Supreme Court especially from the many Filipinos who have already practically turned  city and subdivision streets into their own personal parking lots to the consternation of everyone else like the pedestrians and those whose parking driveways they block.

Still, the no-parking, no-vehicle proposal is a must-consider solution to the  very serious problem of congested traffic in the Philippines which, according to an international study,  costs Filipinos at least P2 billion a day in lost productivity, incomes and wasted fuel, etc.

The proposal is not new at all. In fact, it’s been successfully implemented in Japan,  with the passage of a law in 1957 banning overnight parking of vehicles on streets and the signing of the Proof of Parking law in 1962. Originally implemented in Japan’s main cities but now in application in nearly the entire country, the Proof of Parking law prohibits the sale of a motor vehicle to anyone who has failed to secure a proof of parking certificate from the local police.

If implemented in the Philippines, the proof of parking scheme must go hand in hand with a strict no street-parking  law or people would just resort to bribery to get the certificate that would “attest” that the police had gone to their houses to see if they have garages.

With a no-street parking law, those who acquired vehicles using fake proof of parking certificates would still get their vehicles towed when parked on the streets. But as in everything else in the Philippines, the success or failure of this twin measure would depend on strict implementation.

Sounds familiar with MMDA’s failure at EDSA and the PNP-HPG’s moderate success with its new Malacañang-mandated role?      

                                                       

Image by: Thebenildean.org