THE Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will shun more debates and instead come up with a decision regarding its plan to implement a modified truck ban.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino over the weekend said that the proposed extended truck ban will be decided by the Metro Manila Council (MMC) during its meeting today to be held at the Quezon City Hall.

“Definitely it will be finalized on Monday during the meeting at the Quezon City Hall. We’ll have a new truck ban scheme, the details of which I cannot say yet, but this will be finalized,” he said.

The meeting will be chaired by Mayor Herbert Bautista of Quezon City, who also heads the Council’s Special Traffic Committee.

Tolentino said that the implementation of the modified truck ban was deferred after trucker groups failed to submit their position on the proposal.

“The modified truck ban was not implemented because we weren’t able to come up with the final scheme during the Metro Manila Council meeting last week,” Tolentino said during the MMDA’s weekly radio program.

He added that the trucker groups asked for more time to file their position papers and proposals on the scheme, which was originally set for implementation today.

The MMC, whose members are the 17 Metro mayors, is the policy-making body of the MMDA.

Under the MMDA’s proposal, a uniform truck ban shall be imposed in Metro Manila from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. everyday except on Sundays and holidays. As such, it would temporarily modify MMDA Resolution no. 07-05 Series of 2007 (Truck Ban Ordinance).

The current truck ban, which covers vehicles with a gross capacity of more than 4,000 kilos, is being enforced from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., except on Saturdays and Sundays.

Violators of the ban are meted a fine of P500 though the MMC is also studying a proposal to raise it to P2, 000.

Tolentino said that they want to modify the existing truck ban to ease the expected traffic congestion in the metropolis this Holiday season.