KM Viray
A netizen by the name BARFBARF Buenaventura uploaded a YouTube video recently about his encounter with two Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) officers who took his vehicle’s license plate as punishment for driving “out of line.”
The driver is an employee of the company UV Express, which has license to operate utility vehicles, particularly vans, as an alternative mode of public transportation in the country. In the video, the driver can heard asking the two MMDA officers named Llena and Gutamora why they were charging him with an “out of line” offense. The driver, who was showing his legal and official documents, insisted that he was lawfully taking the route assigned to him, which was C5-Congressional Avenue to Balintawak. The MMDA officers, however, insisted that he should have gone along Quirino Highway. This surprised the driver and he could be heard asking in the video how that could be, when it was clearly stated in the franchise papers that that was his route, one, he said, he took everyday.
When he asked the officers how he was out of line, neither could him a straight answer, sometimes they even ignored him and continued writing his apparent “offenses”.
The driver continued asking the two what he did wrong. He said he neither loaded nor unloaded any passengers aside from their designated terminals, yet his claims again fell on deaf ears. The video clearly showed Gutamora removing the UV Express vehicle’s license plate. The driver was even told to just complain at the MMDA office despite his repetitive insistence he did nothing wrong.
At the end of the video, the driver refused to sign his ticket. He also took video of the motorcycles the officers rode in on, which were apparently registered in 2013 and did not have stickers.
Unlike other vans which can be considered “colorum” or illegal public land transport without license or a franchise, UV Express is actually one of the few van companies which can legally offer comfortable transportation. They have supporting documents which can be presented to traffic enforcers to assure them of their route.
There may be more to this case, however, with Llena and Gutamora being unable to even explain how the driver was out of line. A simple explanation would have sufficed, something the driver was entitled to. But with the officers being evasive, there may be questions about why they cannot be more upfront about their allegations.
