A traffic enforcer under the Cebu City Traffic Office mans the Banilad-Talamban corridor, one of the traffic choke points in the city particularly during rush hours. | CDN File Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines—Motorists and pedestrians should expect more traffic enforcers on the street starting next week as new enforcers just finished their training on Thursday, February 14.
Francisco Ouano, the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) head, said that the 120 new enforcers will augment the current 340 enforcers deployed on the field.
Ouano said the new enforcers will be deployed in three eight-hour-shifts – from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., and 10 p.m. to 6 p.m. – at intersections and along the main thoroughfares of the city.
He said that the new enforcers will help address the worsening traffic problem in the city and ensure that erring motorists, who have grown confident with the lack of enforcers on the field, will be apprehended.
Ouano said that with their aim to lower the number of violators on the streets this year, the addition of a new force will get them closer to their target.
The two-month training of new enforcers started in December 2018.
He said that those who would like to be traffic enforcers need to be at least of college level and should be physically healthy to undergo training.
However, the new enforcers won’t be authorized to confiscate driver’s licenses of erring motorists since only the one hundred experienced enforcers will be allowed to do so by CCTO.
The CCTO intends to begin confiscating driver’s licenses of traffic violators next week, using as basis an ordinance signed into law by Mayor Tomas Osmeña last month.
This ordinance is still being contested by the Land Transportation Office in Central Visayas (LTO-7) as being unconstitutional and in violation of the Land Transportation Code of the Philippines that states that only LTO can deputize agents and agencies to confiscate driver’s licenses. /elb