BEWARE: MMDA's No Contact Apprehension policy works.

Somebody in the AutoDeal office got a ticket. We thought we’d capitalize on his misery, and write an informative article. The TL;DR of this whole debacle is as follows: The MMDA’s No Contact Apprehension Policy works, and you can go to a Bayad Center in the event that you get caught doing less-than-desirable activities on the road. 

In this case, someone got caught on the yellow lane of EDSA via a CCTV camera. Amazingly, the camera was able to get all the needed information for the apprehension, which only involves the plate number with the accompanying registration sticker, which will point the MMDA to the registered owner of the vehicle. True to the policy’s name, no MMDA officer approached our colleague. 

While the violation was made back in the month of January, it appears that it was only encoded onto the database of the MMDA by the month of June. The apprehension was then mailed out in August. On that note, it seems a little late. A week to a month seems to be a more acceptable lead time, as our co-worker was quite shocked to receive a letter and a fine for an incident that happened long ago. Though we’re going off the letter we have received. This could be an isolated case, however. 

Expect an envelope like this to be sent to you. Once you see the MMDA logo, you’d know what to expect and brace for. For privacy purposes, we blurred out the name and address of the co-worker in question, but your full name and address to be present on the front of the envelope as well as the unique summon/citation number. 

Opening the envelope reveals a letter printed on a piece of long bond paper. This document will contain your name, address, plate number, date and time of the incident, as well as the location of the apprehension. Following this, you get your violation with a corresponding fine. In this case, a P1,000 ticket was issued for violating the yellow lane rule. You also have seven days to pay off your violation upon receipt, at any authorized transaction center which includes Bayad Centers, SM Bills Payment Centers, or via LBC. 

The mode of payment that our co-worker used was the Bayad Center. Thankfully, he was able to pay way before the deadline. All he had to do was bring the letter, pay his fine and a small processing fee of P12 to the cashier, and it was done. No more violation to speak of. 

It is important to note that you can make a case for yourself with the MMDA. The CCTV footage can be viewed at the Traffic Adjudication Board within seven days of the receipt of the letter. You can ask the MMDA for clarification or you can contest the apprehension. 

If you weren’t piloting the vehicle during the time that the incident was captured by the CCTV, you can write the full name, license number, address, and date of birth in a letter to be sent to the MMDA. If no reply is received, then the responsibility falls on the owner of the apprehended vehicle to pay the fines. 

At the end of the day, paying for the violation took out a good portion of our officemate’s day, as well as a sizeable chunk of change from his wallet. While there are a few who protest the MMDA’s policies, we cannot deny that the overall purpose of the organization is not to make money, but to make traffic more organized and bearable especially since it doesn’t seem to be getting better.