GOV. Hilario Davide III will be convening traffic managers and officials from different concerned agencies to map out strategies aimed at preventing another “Carmageddon” during the anticipated Christmas rush.
The provincial Interagency Council on Traffic (IACT-Cebu), which was formed by a provincial ordinance and made up of police station chiefs, Highway Patrol Group (HPG), traffic managers from local government units (LGUs) within Metro Cebu, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH-7) and Land Transportation Office (LTO), will convene on Monday, December 10.
Traffic Management Focal Person Jonathan Tumulak said the meeting will discuss possible measures to ease traffic during the holidays.
“We anticipate that the heavy traffic will be experienced from December 15, which is the payday for most workers and some are also likely to get their bonuses that day. We expect that this will run until the Christmas day on the 25th,”
Tumulak explained in Cebuano.
Tumulak said the meeting and the measures they hope to come up with will be used to prevent a repeat of the heavy traffic experienced in the southern part of the province in December last year.
Two days before Christmas last year, a more or less 6-hour traffic gridlock was experienced by motorists plying the national highway of Cebu’s first district because the traffic enforcers in one of the LGUs reportedly went to a party.
Tumulak said IACT-Cebu will be supporting the operations of the personnel of IACT Central Visayas which was formed by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to address traffic problems in the metropolis.
Although IACT-Cebu has yet to be formally launched, Tumulak said a copy of the ordinance passed by the provincial board mid this year that formed the council was already furnished to the DOTr through the LTO.
“The LTO already has its copy. In fact, it was already presented during a meeting conducted two weeks before the regional IACT started its operation in Cebu,” Tumulak said.
Tumulak said that they will formally launch IACT Cebu after the Sinulog in January.