Number Coding in Metro Manila: Plate Rules, Hours and Exemptions (2026)

Published October 7, 2026 · RideAgain, Parañaque

Number coding is the one Metro Manila rule that follows you home from the dealer. The plate is fixed, the day is fixed, and for five rush hours a week that car is parked unless you stay off the covered roads. This guide states the scheme as the MMDA enforces it as of October 2026, shows which days our own stock is coded, and explains how to weigh coding against price, year and mileage. Suspensions and city rules change, so confirm with the MMDA before you plan around it.

What the UVVRP is

The Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program (UVVRP) is the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority's scheme that keeps roughly one in five private vehicles off major Metro Manila roads during weekday rush hours, chosen by the last digit of the plate. Everyone calls it number coding, or just coding.

It is a Metro Manila rule, not a national one. The MMDA enforces it on national roads and major thoroughfares, and each city applies it on its own streets by ordinance, which is why Makati's hours differ from EDSA's. The scheme took its current two-block form in August 2022. A plan to replace coding on EDSA with an odd-even scheme during the EDSA rebuild was shelved in June 2025 when the rehabilitation was put on hold, so as of October 2026 regular coding still applies on EDSA.

The schedule: plate endings by day

Your coding day is set by the last digit of your plate number, and only that digit, as follows (MMDA, as of October 2026):

• Monday: plates ending in 1 and 2
• Tuesday: plates ending in 3 and 4
• Wednesday: plates ending in 5 and 6
• Thursday: plates ending in 7 and 8
• Friday: plates ending in 9 and 0
• Saturday and Sunday: no coding

The letters do not matter, so an older three-letter plate and a newer four-digit plate follow the same rule. If a plate ends in a letter, the MMDA has clarified that the last digit before the letter is the coding digit. A car still on a conduction sticker is coded by the last digit of the sticker number until its plate is installed; we cover that in our conduction sticker guide.

The hours and the window rules

On MMDA-covered roads, coding runs 7:00 to 10:00 AM and 5:00 to 8:00 PM, Monday to Friday; the gap between is the window hours, 10:01 AM to 4:59 PM, when every plate may drive, and there is no coding overnight from 8:01 PM to 6:59 AM. Those are the MMDA's hours as of October 2026; confirm them before you rely on them.

Window hours make coding livable: a coded car can still do the school run after 10, a midday errand or a trip that starts after 8 PM. What it cannot do is sit in the morning or evening rush on a covered road, which is exactly when most commutes happen. Makati enforces its own coding from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM straight through, with no window, on the Makati stretches of EDSA, Ayala Avenue and Gil Puyat; crossing Makati at noon on your coded day is a ticket there and legal on the MMDA's side of the same road.

Where it applies and LGU differences

Coding applies on the national roads and major thoroughfares the MMDA manages across Metro Manila, and on city streets wherever the local government has adopted it. EDSA, C5, Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon Avenue, Ortigas Avenue, Shaw Boulevard, Taft Avenue, Roxas Boulevard and Marcos Highway are the big ones. Tollways such as the Skyway, SLEX and the NAIA Expressway are not part of the scheme, which is why a coded car can still take the expressway to the airport.

• Makati: 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, no window hours, on city roads. Senior citizens holding the city's Blu Card keep a local exemption.
• Marikina, Taguig, Muntinlupa, Navotas and Pateros: commonly reported as not enforcing coding on local streets, with only the national roads through them (Marcos Highway, C5, Alabang-Zapote Road and the like) covered. Confirm with the city.
• Parañaque: the city enforces the UVVRP on its roads under its own resolution, and its window hours on city streets have changed more than once over the years. Our lot is in Parañaque; check the city's latest advisory, and book viewings on your non-coded day or inside the window.
• Everywhere else: assume the MMDA hours and window are in force on any unfamiliar street.

Current advisories, including holiday suspensions, are posted on the MMDA website. The scheme is lifted on regular and special non-working holidays, and the MMDA has also suspended it during severe weather, as on 6 August 2026 during Tropical Storm Maymay. It is not lifted for big events by default: coding stayed in force on 27 July 2026 for the SONA.

Exemptions

The exemptions are narrow, and a private car bought for family use almost never qualifies. As of October 2026 the MMDA's list of vehicles exempt from the UVVRP covers:

• Public utility vehicles, including tricycles, and TNVS units with a valid franchise.
• Motorcycles.
• Ambulances, fire trucks, police and marked government vehicles, and marked media vehicles.
• Garbage trucks, fuel tankers and vehicles carrying essential or perishable goods.
• Any vehicle carrying a person who needs immediate medical attention, automatically and without an exemption certificate.
• Electric vehicles, under the EVIDA law; the MMDA's published lists have also covered hybrids. Confirm the current treatment of a hybrid with the MMDA.

Senior citizens and persons with disabilities are no longer exempt on MMDA roads. That exemption was removed when the expanded scheme returned in August 2022, on the reasoning that the window hours now give everyone a legal daytime slot. Makati's Blu Card exemption is a city rule and applies only in Makati.

The fine for a coding violation on MMDA roads is ₱500 on the MMDA's published 2025 schedule of traffic fines, and unpaid tickets under the single ticketing system block your LTO registration renewal; our LTO registration renewal guide explains how that catches people. City-issued tickets follow the city's own ordinance and can differ.

What coding means when you choose a used car

When you buy a used car you are also buying its plate, and the plate decides which weekday that car stays home during rush hour. You cannot change a plate to dodge coding, so the only lever you have is the choice of unit. Work backwards from your week:

1. Find your lightest weekday. A work-from-home day, a day with no school run, or the day you take the train. A plate coded on that day costs you almost nothing.
2. Check the route, not just the day. If your commute never touches a covered road, coding barely applies. If it crosses Makati, remember there is no window there.
3. Pair plates in a two-car household. A Wednesday-coded sedan and a Friday-coded MPV mean one car is always available. Two cars both ending in 5 is a planning mistake.
4. Price the alternative. One coded day a week on a five-day commute is roughly twenty rush-hour trips a month you cannot make in that car. If that means ride-hailing or a second car, it belongs in the budget alongside fuel and parking; our guide to the total cost of car ownership shows where it fits.

Coding should rarely beat condition, papers or price. Between two Vios units a year apart, the better-kept one with clean documents wins even if its coding day is awkward. Between two near-identical units, though, the plate is a free tiebreaker, and it is one of the first things we point out at a viewing.

Plates in our stock and their coding day

Here is how coding falls across a sample of our Parañaque lot as of October 2026, grouped by the day each plate is banned on MMDA roads. Every link goes to the live listing, so you can check the plate yourself.

• Monday (1, 2): 2024 Toyota Vios 1.3 XLE CVT (ends 2), 2017 Ford Everest Trend AT (ends 2), 2017 Ford Ecosport Trend AT (ends 1).
• Tuesday (3, 4): 2019 Toyota Vios 1.3 E MT (ends 4), 2023 Mitsubishi Mirage G4 GLX 1.2G CVT (ends 4), 2023 Mitsubishi Xpander GLS 1.5 (ends 3).
• Wednesday (5, 6): 2023 Toyota Vios 1.3 XLE CVT (ends 5), 2018 Honda City 1.5 VTEC AT (ends 5), 2024 Toyota Vios 1.3 XLE CVT (ends 6).
• Thursday (7, 8): 2024 Hyundai Stargazer 1.5 GL IVT (ends 7), 2025 Hyundai Stargazer GLS AT (ends 8), 2022 MG MG5 (ends 7).
• Friday (9, 0): 2024 Hyundai Stargazer GL IVT (ends 9), 2019 Ford Ranger Wildtrak AT (ends 0), 2018 Mitsubishi Mirage G4 GLX (ends 0).

Notice how often the same model lands on different days. We usually hold several Vios and Stargazer units at once, so once you have settled on a model you can often choose your coding day too: browse the Vios units or the Stargazer units and read the plates. Viewings are by appointment, Monday to Saturday, 9 AM to 6 PM, at Vitalez Compound, Parañaque; our Parañaque dealer page has the details, and the first week of ownership, coding included, is in our guide on what to do after buying a used car.

Book a viewing on your non-coded day →