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AFTER apprehending colorum buses plying EDSA, the
Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said on Thursday that
it will apprehend arrogant, inappropriately-attired and “stinky”
conductors.
Roberto Esquivel, chief of the
traffic enforcement group of the agency’s Traffic Operations
Center, said six teams consisting of the agency’s personnel were
already dispatched along EDSA to apprehend undesirable bus
conductors who also act as “barkers,” or those who call on
commuters to board their buses.
The MMDA said they have received
numerous complaints about unruly and horrible smelling bus
conductors who practically turn non-designated loading bays along
EDSA into illegal terminals, or whose buses overstay at the
designated loading bays.
“We already fielded six
teams along EDSA from Monumento to Pasay City, and all its
intersections to apprehend this type of bus conductors,” Esquivel
said.
Esquivel also warned bus
personnel, including the drivers, to wear respectable attires to
earn the respect of commuters and to prevent police authorities from
placing them behind bars for suspecting them to be thugs or
criminals.
Due to the untidy appearance of
bus drivers and conductors, some passengers who are victims of
robbery inside public utility vehicles have included bus personnel
as accomplices of the suspects.
Esquivel urged them to wear newly
washed and pressed uniforms to erase the wrong notion that drivers
and conductors are criminal accomplices.
In the coming days, Esquivel said
that he will personally join his team in apprehending arrogant,
poorly dressed and rude bus drivers and conductors, and have them
suffer the consequence of suspension or revocation of their
licenses.
He added the MMDA is scheduled to
hold talks with bus operators to get their inputs and cooperation in
maintaining a safer and more comfortable travel for commuters.
They will also discuss
several issues, including handling sensitive situations and how to
discreetly report to the police the presence of known felons inside
the bus without putting the lives of the passengers in danger.
--Jayson Cruz Luna
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