|
The MMDA, alarmed by fatalities and accidents, which by the data
gathered by its Metropolitan Road Safety Unit (MRSU) agency’s own
count have increased by 250 percent in January to March 2008 over
the same period of January to March 2007, is boosting its road
safety programs.
Meanwhile, knowing as the Philippine National
Police also does, that discipline is the one true factor in road
safety and any improvement effort, MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando on
Friday July 18 called on the Filipinos to look back to its past
history and exert every effort to revive what he termed as the
values of order and discipline in order for the country to regain
its position of strength and economic superiority in the Asian
region. The MMDA head was speaking in a dialogue with local
officials of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).
Fernando said Philippine society must have a
high respect for the country’s laws, statutes as well as ordinary
rules and regulations if we are to achieve our aspirations for
global recognition and compete with other nations in the Asian
hemisphere.
The scheduled 2010 national elections, according
to Fernando, is crucial in that the nation as a whole can only
succeed in eradicating poverty if the people will use their right of
suffrage wisely.
Law order in metropolis
Earlier, the MMDA chairman had stressed that the
agency intends to maintain law and order on the streets of the
metropolis despite threats from critics.
He declared that the MMDA has always been
non-partisan and had enforced traffic rules and its other assigned
tasks equally to violators regardless of creed, political and
religious beliefs, race, financial status or sexual preferences.
“Ang masama ay kung may kinikilingan kami
ditto. Kung sinasamsam naming ang paninda ng sidewalk vendor dapat
sana mapansin ng publiko na iniimpound din naming ang mga colorum na
sasakyan na pagmamayari ng mayayaman. Hindi ito question na kung
sino ang mahirap o sino ang mayaman ang tanong ditto sino ba ang
tama at nasa lugar,’’ Fernando noted.
He stood pat and remained firm in apprehending
traffic violators, demolishing illegal structures and running after
illegal vendors insisting that enforcing the law is egalitarian or
classless with no time frame.
At the same time, MMDA Traffic Executive
Director Angelito Vergel de Dios asked the agency’s traffic
personnel to always remain courteous and to state clearly the
traffic violation committed by the motorists when flagging down
errant motorists.
De Dios called on the public to report any
abusive acts committed by MMDA men and women, and he vowed to remove
them from the service if the agency finds them guilty as charged.
He decried reports of a shortage of traffic
personnel saying the MMDA continuously trains and accepts qualified
applicants in its rank in replacement of any traffic crew removed
from office.
“Yellow Lane” policy
To promote road safety and traffic order, the
MMDA has strictly enforced the “yellow lane policy” involving
major thoroughfares in the metropolis
Citing figures from the agency’s Traffic
Enforcement Unit, Chairman Fernando disclosed that they have
recorded 2, 000 violations of private vehicle owners of the policy,
particularly at Epifanio De Los Santos (EDSA), since the last week
of June.
On a daily basis, private vehicle owners commit
some 101 violations daily of the policy.
“These figures are the result of our strict
implementation of traffic rules and regulation in our roadways and
we will continue our crackdown against erring drivers if they insist
on violating our regulations,” Fernando said.
MMDA will maintain surveillance cameras to
monitor the entire traffic situation on EDSA and other major roads
on a 24-hour basis.
It is also continuously carrying several road
safety promotive programs , including control of jeepneys and
buses’ movements and vilations.
|
