Senate Bill #1165 or the “No Garage, No Car” bill has been filed in the upper house. We think it’s high time this becomes law. There’s just too many cars on the road these days and any effort that seeks to curb especially those that impede smaller two-way streets.
For example, with the traffic of Marcos Highway and C5, streets in Pasig should’ve been decent alternative routes but their narrowness combined by illegally parked vehicles make them impassable. And they’re usually newer vehicles parked in front of residences which clearly have no parking spaces.
Basically, the bill will require those based in metropolitan areas to present a notarized proof of parking (whether owned or leased before they are allowed to buy vehicles. It will be a requirement before any car will be registered with the LTO.
The metropolitan areas identified by NEDA include but not limited to the following: Metro Manila, Angeles, Bacolod, Baguio, Batangas, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Dagupan, Davao, Iloilo, Naga, and Olongapo.
The bill will also empower the LTO, MMDA, and LGUs to monitor streets and alleyways and clear them as needed – something that the MMDA has been doing of late.
The penalty for violating the law would be 3 years suspension of registration for the vehicle and a PhP 50,000 fine. For any government employee found allowing vehicles to be registered without the proper documentation will be suspended 3 months without pay.
As with any law, we’re always concerned with the ambiguous clauses and areas that might have loopholes in reasoning. So far some of our questions regarding the law are:
- What about second-hand vehicles? We think all vehicles should be required to have a parking space and this proof should be made a requirement even for the yearly renewal of registration.
- What qualifies as proper parking space and how can the LTO verify the existence of said parking space? It’s so easy to snap a photo of a vacant lot or space and claim that the space is free.
The bill is sponsored by Sen. Joel Villanueva. You can read the bill here.