Pasig Coding Hours 2026: Schedule, Fines & Exemptions

Seathiele Darké

October 19, 2026 5:24 am

Pasig is one of those cities where the coding schedule sounds simple on paper, but the details that actually trip people up which roads count, how NCAP tickets work differently from a regular flag-down, where to pay depending on who caught you rarely get explained clearly in one place. Since Pasig sits at a crossroads with Makati, Mandaluyong, Taguig, and Quezon City all bordering it, drivers moving through the area often end up applying the wrong city’s rule without realizing it.

Your Coding Day Based on Plate Number

Pasig follows the same digit rotation used across most of Metro Manila, so if you already know your coding day in another city, it carries over here:

A plate ending in 8, for example, sits under restriction on Thursdays. That doesn't mean the car is grounded all day it just can't use the major covered roads during the two banned sessions, and it's free the rest of the time, including all day on weekends and holidays.

How the Scheme Actually Works Day to Day

Pasig runs what's officially called the Expanded Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program, though almost nobody uses that full name everyone just calls it coding. The city reimplemented it in 2022 specifically to deal with worsening rush-hour congestion, and while the branding changed slightly from the older UVVRP name, the actual hours never moved. Two restricted sessions run each weekday:

Outside those two morning and evening blocks, there's no restriction at all no all-day ban here, unlike Makati, which enforces coding continuously from 7 AM straight through to 7 PM with nothing in between.

Making the Most of the Window Hours

That gap between sessions 10:01 AM to 4:59 PM is genuinely open driving time for coded vehicles anywhere in the city, with a second overnight window running from 8:01 PM to 6:59 AM. Drivers who plan their errands, client meetings, or deliveries around this window tend to avoid the coding headache entirely rather than trying to memorize exemptions or hunt for workaround routes. It's a bigger deal than it might sound, since neighboring Makati doesn't offer this at all its ban simply runs continuously through the whole workday.

The Roads Where Coding Is Actually Enforced

This is the section that matters most practically, since Pasig's coding rule doesn't blanket the entire city it targets the corridors carrying the heaviest peak-hour volume. Covered roads include:

• C-5 Road, also known locally as E. Rodriguez Jr. Avenue
• Ortigas Avenue, plus its extension
• Shaw Boulevard
• Pasig Boulevard
• Marcos Highway
• Julia Vargas Avenue
• Meralco Avenue
• Elisco Road and Sandoval Avenue

Worth flagging specifically: the C-5–Ortigas interchange sits right inside Pasig and ranks among the busiest junctions in the entire metro, so timing matters even more if your route runs through it. Private tollways like Skyway itself aren't covered by coding, but the exit ramps often dump you straight onto a road that is so the moment you actually leave the expressway can matter just as much as your route on it.

On the flip side, small local and residential streets, barangay-level roads, and private or internal roads think subdivisions, mall driveways, or hospital access roads sit outside the scheme entirely. That means getting home, reaching a clinic, or running a short local errand is never blocked by coding, even on your restricted day. It's only once you merge back onto one of the major thoroughfares above that the restriction applies again.

Who Doesn't Have to Follow Coding at All

A fairly broad set of vehicles are exempt regardless of the day or plate ending:

• Public utility vehicles and TNVS ride-hailing units
• Motorcycles
• Marked government and media vehicles
• Ambulances, fire trucks, and other emergency-response vehicles
• Garbage trucks and fuel tankers
• Vehicles displaying a valid PWD ID and sticker
• Vehicles transporting essential or perishable goods

The motorcycle exemption is worth calling out on its own, since it applies almost everywhere in Metro Manila Makati being the one notable exception so riders in Pasig can move freely on any day without worrying about plate digits at all.

Electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles are exempt too, under the EVIDA Law (Republic Act 11697), which stays in effect through April 2030. One nuance that catches people off guard: mild hybrids don't qualify for this. Since a mild hybrid can't actually run on electric power alone, it doesn't meet the law's requirement and still has to follow the normal coding schedule.

Coding Fines, NCAP Tickets, and Where You Actually Pay

This is where Pasig gets a little more complicated than most cities, mainly because of how tickets get issued. A standard coding violation runs somewhere between ₱300 and ₱500 depending on the exact citation, with a seven-day window to settle it before additional penalties kick in. Ignore it long enough, and your plate can end up flagged on the LTO's alarm list, which blocks registration renewal until it's cleared.

The part that trips a lot of drivers up: your ticket could come from either the MMDA directly or from Pasig's own city traffic enforcers, and where you settle it depends entirely on which one issued it. An MMDA-issued ticket gets paid at an MMDA office, while a Pasig LGU ticket goes through the city's own traffic office instead so it's worth actually reading the citation carefully rather than assuming.

A lot of Pasig's major roads also run under the No-Contact Apprehension Policy, meaning CCTV cameras not a physical enforcer catch the violation. Roads like C-5, Ortigas Avenue, Shaw Boulevard, and Marcos Highway are all covered by this camera system. If you're caught this way, there's no flag-down moment at all the citation simply arrives by mail afterward. These NCAP fines can be settled online rather than in person, through options like Landbank's Link.BizPortal, GCash, or Maya, which tends to be faster than the traditional in-person route.

How Pasig Stacks Up Against Nearby Cities

Since Pasig borders several other jurisdictions, it helps to see how the rules line up side by side:

Most of Pasig's immediate neighbors run the identical schedule, which makes cross-border driving fairly seamless in most directions the one city that stands apart is Makati, with its all-day ban and no midday relief at all.

Provincial and Out-of-Town Plates Aren't Exempt

Drivers coming in from outside Metro Manila sometimes assume a provincial plate gets them a pass. It doesn't. Pasig applies the same coding rule to every vehicle regardless of where it's registered, so your plate's last digit still determines your restricted day exactly the same way it would for a resident. If you're just passing through, the safest strategy is sticking to the window hours between 10:01 AM and 4:59 PM to avoid any issue entirely.

When the Whole Schedule Gets Suspended

Coding is automatically lifted on regular and special non-working holidays, confirmed individually by the MMDA each time the June 12, 2026 Independence Day suspension being a recent example, along with the usual pause through Holy Week and the Christmas-to-New Year stretch. Beyond scheduled holidays, the MMDA can also suspend coding temporarily during major events or emergencies, and sometimes that suspension applies to a single city rather than the whole metro area. Given how situational these suspensions can get, it's worth checking current advisories before assuming a given day is automatically coding-free.

Related guides: Number Coding Hours Philippines · Quezon City Coding Hours

Frequently Asked Questions

Seathiele Darké

Hi, I’m Seathiele Darké, the author of LTOTrackers.com. I built this platform to help users easily find the correct official resources for license and vehicle updates and status check. My focus is on keeping things simple, clear, and user-friendly, so people can get the information they need without confusion or stress.