MMDA General Manager Robert Nacianceno said that less than 50 percent of the 3,000 legitimate passenger buses plying EDSA failed to meet the Oct. 12 deadline for the "tagging process" needed for the Organized Bus Route.

MMDA records revealed that 1,700 bus franchises were given the OBR tag while the remaining 1,300 buses that failed to register are now deemed as colorum.

MMDA Traffic Operations Center (TOC) Executive Director Angelito Vergel de Dios earlier vowed to pounce on illegitimate buses on EDSA to decongest the area and provide the public with a safer and more comfortable travel.

Nacianceno added that TOC personnel are on the lookout for colorum passenger buses on EDSA whose owners tried in vain to defy the enforcement of the OBR.

Some bus operators have resorted to alibis to justify their failure to submit their buses for tagging before the Oct. 12 deadline.

"We will now book at these drivers and bus operators who deliberately did not heed the Oct. 12 deadline on the pretext that their units have conked out. We are aware of the fact that some really intend to sabotage the OBR operations," Nacianceno added.

Nacianceno cautioned drivers that untagged bus units plying EDSA would be flagged down and immediately impounded by the MMDA TOC personnel.

He minced no words in deploring shrewd bus firm owners who insist on illegally their trade as he warned them not to even think of embarking on their illegitimate operation.

Legal bus franchise holders of passenger buses and the commuters are optimistic the OBR is the answer to the growing traffic and pollution woes on EDSA.

The OBR traffic scheme is a controlled single dispatching system of passenger buses on designated terminals that hopes to lessen the number of unoccupied bus units on EDSA.

Studies show that close to half of the buses on EDSA are colorum, unfairly depleting the income of bus drivers and conductors of legitimate units. (Chito A. Chavez)