MMDA warned against defying SC ruling

First posted 05:47pm (Mla time) Dec 28, 2005
By Tetch Torres
INQ7.net

THE METRO Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is wrong if it will insist on arresting erring motorists despite a Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the agency from doing so, the high court's Information chief Ismael Khan said Wednesday.

Khan said either Congress or local government units should authorize the MMDA to do this.

MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando said in an interview on GMA Network's "Flash Report" earlier on Wednesday that the MMDA would continue arresting violators despite
the high court ruling.

At the same time, Fernando asked Congress to review the agency's mandate.

"The ruling of the Supreme Court second division is very clear -- that [the] MMDA has no police power," Khan said.

"MMDA has no authority or leg to stand on without an authority coming from Congress or the local government units, which delegate them to do such arrests," he said.

Khan added that the case could no longer be appealed even if it was a division in the high tribunal that issued the ruling.

"The decision of a division of the Supreme Court is a decision of the court itself," Khan said.

In a decision dated December 5, the high court's second division dismissed the MMDA's petition for the court to reconsider its ruling stopping the agency from issuing traffic violation receipts (TVRs) and confiscating drivers' licenses.