ADDRESSING SOUTHERN TRAFFIC

Officials of Minglanilla Traffic Commission, City of Talisay Traffic Operations Development Authority have agreed to work closely to address the problem

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) 7 deployed four operatives to help traffic enforcers in Minglanilla.

They will work together with the Minglanilla Traffic Commission (Mitcom) until Dec. 31 to make sure motorists and commuters won’t encounter a massive traffic jam similar to what happened last weekend.

They will be accompanied by police officers deputized by LTO as they will be issuing temporary operator’s permits to violators, said LTO 7 Director Alita Pulga.

Pulga advised Minglanilla Mayor Elanito Peña to remove parked cars and other obstructions from the national highway to facilitate smooth traffic.

In a related development, officials of Mitcom and the City of Talisay Traffic Operations Development Authority (CT-Toda) met in Talisay City yesterday to come up with a joint traffic program to prevent another gridlock like the one that stranded some motorists for 10 hours last Dec. 23.

Atty. Oscar Capacio, Talisay City consultant for traffic operations, told reporters that both traffic groups agreed to meet each month to help improve traffic enforcement in both local government units.

Senior Insp. Rico Emperwa, Minglanilla police chief, said they also agreed to closely coordinate with Mitcom and CT-Toda.

Emperwa added that he and Peña already sent letters to factory and big establishment owners in the town, asking them to have their deliveries done between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.

Meanwhile, Gov. Hilario Davide III said he plans to meet with officials of Minglanilla and other southern towns and cities on Jan. 3 to discuss traffic in the south.

Davide said he wants to know what happened last Dec. 23 after receiving complaints from various individuals.

The governor said he hopes the incident will not happen again. /