Hiring more traffic personnel a priority
MANILA — Employing additional traffic management personnel should be made a priority amid the worsening situation of traffic in Metro Manila, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said.
Citing the post of Metro Manila Development Authority spokesperson Celine Pialago, Recto said the agency only has 2,000 field staff in its payroll—5,000 short of the traffic personnel it needs.
He stressed that “round-the-clock and rain-or-shine” supervision of MMDA personnel is now needed due to the surge in the number of vehicles, major roads and critical intersections in the metro.
“MMDA needs an active night brigade,” Recto said in a release Friday.
The senator added that “more men [are needed] to come to the aid of the injured and clear the road of obstructions.”
MDDA “must be allowed to tap a portion of the 168 million it collects in traffic and littering fines annually— specifically for the hiring of more personnel” if government rules prohibit the agency from using its internally generated income, Recto said.
But best solution to the lack of traffic personnel, he stressed, is to increase the funds MMDA receives from the national government through the General Appropriations Act. In 2018, MMDA was given a budget of P3.688 billion.
Recto issued the call days after the Senate committee on public services held a hearing on the planned ban on provincial buses and the worsening traffic situation along EDSA, Metro Manila’s main road.