MANILA, Philippines – The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) have started attaching yellow authorized stickers on legitimate buses plying the EDSA route.

The “yellow sticker” campaign aims to weed out and eradicate colorum buses along the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) with numbers reaching an estimated 2,000 buses.

While Plains Avenue looked like a bus terminal on Saturday as hundreds of buses lined up. The buses, however, were not waiting for passengers but for stickers to be placed on their windshields. 

Director Neomie Recio, the officer-in-charge of the MMDA Traffic and Transport Management Office (TTMO), explained how the “yellow sticker” campaign will work.

“After October, lahat ng walang sticker huhulihin na. So ‘yun ang palatandaan kung ikaw ay colorum o hindi,” said Recio.

The yellow sticker is available only for legitimate and duly licensed buses plying the EDSA route.

Since this is an anti-colorum campaign, the sticker cannot be transferred.

Each has its own serial number with the bus’ license number printed on it as well.

Authorities only attach the yellow EDSA line stickers during weekends. By October 31, they will start working on stickers for the other remaining bus routes.

Some colorum buses impounded
 
Bus driver Ignacio dela Vega is all for the anti-colorum campaign.

“Sa amin okay lang ‘yun para hindi sala-salabat sa EDSA,” he said. "Minsan gabi na umuuwi wala pang kita.”

Once all legitimate buses have stickers on them, it will be easier to spot the colorum buses on the street.

Illegal buses that will be caught still roving EDSA will end up in an MMDA impound. Authorities said they would rather pack them in there rather than have the buses further congest the streets.

Since Tuesday, more than 200 buses have been impounded by the MMDA. That is only 10% of the estimated 2,000 colorum buses allegedly plying EDSA.