Number Coding: Metro Manila's Plate-Based Driving Ban
The MMDA has rationed road space by licence plate since December 1995: cars whose plates end in 1 or 2 stay off Metro Manila roads on Mondays, 3 or 4 on Tuesdays, and so on to 9 or 0 on Fridays, banned from 7-10am and 5-8pm with a midday window. Expressways, motorcycles, public transport and, under the 2022 electric vehicle law, hybrid and electric cars are exempt, and cities inside the metro vary the window hours. Enforcers do most of the catching: camera enforcement was restrained by the Supreme Court in 2022 and only partly restored to the MMDA in May 2025.
Thirty years in, a rationing rule is defined as much by its exemptions and its enforcement gaps as by the ban itself.
Evidence• No measured figure
Scale🗺️ Regional
Sources
↗ Wikipedia — number coding in the PhilippinesOrigin: MMDA Regulation No. 95-001 signed 23 November 1995, strict implementation from 1 December 1995, experimental EDSA run October 1995; the original odd/even rule and 7-9am and 5-7pm hours; the COVID suspension from 13 March 2020 to 30 November 2021. Used only for these dated facts.
↗ Rappler — a guide to Metro Manila's number coding schemesSupports the point that individual Metro Manila cities run their own variants of the MMDA scheme, differing on window hours and coverage. Direct fetch blocked (403); article and coverage confirmed by search. City-specific hour claims circulating on aggregator sites were deliberately not used.
↗ GMA News — camera enforcement resumes on 26 May 2025The camera-enforcement question: a Supreme Court spokesperson confirms the 2022 restraining order was lifted only for the MMDA and only on major thoroughfares such as C5 and EDSA, while city ordinances remain restrained and the constitutional petition is undecided.
↗ Rappler — the Supreme Court partially lifts its order on camera enforcementDates and scope of the litigation: the order was issued 30 August 2022 on a transport-group petition covering the MMDA and city ordinances in Manila, Quezon City, Valenzuela, Muntinlupa and Parañaque, and partially lifted 20 May 2025. Direct fetch blocked (403); confirmed by search.
↗ Rappler — how camera enforcement works, and how to contest itEstablishes that number coding violations are among the infractions caught by the cameras, at a 500-peso fine, alongside disregarding traffic signs and speeding at 1,000 pesos each. Direct fetch blocked (403); the carrying sentence confirmed by search.
