Wanted: traffic enforcers
The Cebu City Government will hire more traffic enforcers to effectively implement traffic rules in the city.
In his news conference yesterday, Mayor Tomas Osmeña said the hiring of additional traffic enforcers is a priority.
Osmeña said he is waiting for the Cebu City Transportation Office to recommend how many the City will hire.
Right now, Osmeña said, enforcers are doing their best to supervise the flow of traffic while they apprehend violators at the same time.
Once they have the additional people, the supervision of traffic and the apprehension of violators will be done separately, he said.
City has been aggressive in apprehending traffic violators, particularly those who counterflow.
Osmeña also reiterated the City’s plan to privatize the city’s parking operations to help lessen expenses.
“We have a plan to privatize the parking. This would free up our budget so we can hire more traffic enforcers because we’re working on a tight budget,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Capitol in coordination with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is training traffic enforcers who will be deployed around the province.
Jonathan “Joy” Tumulak, Capitol focal person for traffic management, said that that the DENR is helping because of the latter’s mandate to monitor air quality under the Clean Air Act.
Tumulak said that last April 6, members of the UP Diliman National Center for Transport Studies headed by Dr. Primitivo Cal were in Cebu to train the first batch of 54 enforcers from different local government units.
Cal, a former undersecretary of the Department of Transportation and a professor of UP Diliman, is a Cebuano.
Tumulak said the heavy traffic in Metro Cebu, from Carcar City in the south to Danao City in the north, is alarming.
“Time has changed. There was no traffic in Metro Cebu about 10 years ago because there were fewer number of vehicles in the cities. Now, even a lot of low-income families own a vehicle for their convenience, especially that there is no mass transport here,” he said.