CAPILLAS
Buried among the headline stories of the week such as the Miss Universe pageant and the temporary withdrawal of the PNP from the government’s war on illegal drugs are two news stories of traffic aides who both met an untimely demise in their chosen careers.
The first, traffic aide Noel Mendoza of the Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (TEAM), was fired from his post on orders of Mandaue City Mayor Gabriel “Luigi” Quisumbing for physically accosting a couple who made an illegal U-turn at United Nations Avenue in Mandaue City.
Though he lost a job, at least Mendoza can gripe about his loss, unlike traffic aide Raquel Bensi of the City Traffic Management System (CITMS) of Lapu-Lapu City who was killed by a still unidentified assailant recently.
Bensi was supposedly killed by a hitman hired by those who complained about his crackdown on tricycle drivers who illegally park along Maximo Patalinhug Avenue in Barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu City.
Bensi was last seen arguing with a tricycle driver whom he apprehended in the area for illegal parking. With CITMS chief Frank Brazil surviving an ambush likely by the same people responsible for Bensi’s murder, more police are being fielded in Patalinhug Avenue to secure it and help assist in decongesting traffic there.
In both cases, the two men met their fate because of how they performed their jobs. In a TV interview, Mendoza admitted that he may have gone too far in accosting the couple who committed a traffic violation but said the mayor should have given him another chance or two to make up for his infraction.
In fact, Mendoza told a reporter, there should have been a second and a third strike before he was relieved of his job. But it’s hard to argue with Mayor Quisumbing’s zero tolerance policy on abusive city government employees especially if these are contractuals or job order workers who can be fired anytime or renewed after their contracts have ended.
It’s a lot more difficult with regular employees, career bureaucrats and elected officials whose tenure is a lot more secure. Still, having set a precedent by firing two clerks for playing computer games during office hours, Mayor Quisumbing gets points for imposing discipline among the rank and file in his first seven months on the job.
* * *
In contrast, Bensi was reportedly killed for cracking down on tricycle drivers as per orders of suspended Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza; and while his death may not earn any sympathy from these drivers, it may elicit some from Lapu-Lapu City residents who are inconvenienced by the presence of tricycle drivers who park anywhere they please particularly along Patalinghug Avenue.
Given the worsening traffic congestion in Metro Cebu, probably the last job anyone wants to have unless he or she is desperate to put food on his or her table is to become a traffic aide.
Rain or shine, regular working day or holiday, a traffic aide is mostly on his own out there in the streets trying to impose some sense of order in the traffic chaos caused by undisciplined public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers and motorists.
We’re not even talking about pedestrians who jaywalk and cross the streets even with the traffic lights turned on red, further aggravating the unpredictable traffic that constantly flows and ebbs in the roads and streets like a living organism onto itself.
Right in the midst of it is the traffic aide, who may or may not be up to the task but is always the convenient target for drivers and motorists frustrated by the slow pace of traffic flow.
Yet they are still there helping out even if in some parts of the world, especially in First World countries, they aren’t needed since traffic lights are supposed to be enough to remind motorists and cab drivers to follow traffic rules.
* * *
The fact that we have traffic aides just shows that A.) we don’t have enough traffic lights, and B.) even if we do have them, is that a guarantee that motorists and PUV drivers would faithfully follow traffic rules?
I’ve known some former media colleagues who got employed as traffic aides and I don’t need to be in their shoes to know that it’s tough for them out there, even if there are lazy traffic aides who do nothing but hide in the shade and play with their smart phones.
But a lot of them do their share in making life easier on the streets and roads for both commuter and motorist alike, and like the street sweepers and the garbage collectors who plod on mostly unrecognized, they do deserve our gratitude.