Addressing traffic

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Bacolod Traffic and Order head, Senior Inspector Levy Pangue recently said that out of the 172 traffic enforcers in the city, only 30 are regular employees of the city and only 16 have met the qualifications, one of the main requirements of which is having at least 72 units in college.

The strange thing is, one of the action plans of the city in addressing the worsening traffic problem includes empowering traffic enforcers with the capacity to apprehend violators, a task that is currently being appointed to the extremely shorthanded Land Transportation Office.  City officials are currently working to get a Temporary Operators Permit from the national government, which will turn over the responsibility of apprehending traffic violators to traffic enforcers, which in theory should put some order into the chaos that rules our roads.

If the city does not put more effort into improving its ranks of traffic enforcers, and somehow gets the permit that will transfer the responsibility of apprehending traffic violators to the city’s traffic enforcers, granting such power to people who are barely qualified to hold the position and obvious inability to interpret traffic laws properly looks like a recipe for disaster instead of a remedy. 

While it has been obvious for years now that the drivers of Bacolod are in sore need of discipline, we cannot allow a situation where the people who will be making the decisions on whether or not a traffic violation has been committed are simply not qualified. 

If city officials are indeed serious about rectifying the traffic problem, steps must be taken to assure the skills and capabilities of those who will be manning the front lines. Bacolod already has sixteen qualified traffic enforcers, let’s hope that more is done so that order will finally be restored in our streets.*