LACK of discipline among bus drivers remains the biggest problem of the Metro Manila Development Authority in managing the traffic flow along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue.
The MMDA legal office has slapped two bus drivers with criminal charges for trying to bribe their traffic enforcers in separate occasions near the intersection of Edsa and Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue (formerly Buendia) in Makati City last Sunday.
On Monday, a traffic enforcer was injured after he was attacked by a bus driver and his conductor whom he flagged down for traffic violation in Pasay City.
The first bribe attempt happened around 6:45 a.m. of Jan. 29 when traffic enforcer Primo Santillana flagged down a DLTB Co. bus (TYX-833) on the northbound lane of Edsa-Buendia in violation of the yellow lane bus regulation.
Santillana, a member of the MMDA motorcycle unit, was issuing a traffic violation ticket to bus driver Francis Armada, of Kaunlaran Village, Caloocan City, when the latter purportedly tried to hand a P100 bill to him.
The traffic enforcer outrightly declined the bribe money and told Armada just to keep the P100 for payment of the traffic infraction.
Nova bus line driver Raul Li, of Bagong Silang, Caloocan City, also tried to bribe traffic enforcer Michael Correa when he was flagged down for disregarding traffic sign at 6:55 a.m. on the same day.
After seeing the grease money, Correa immediately returned the driver’s license containing the bribe money to Li and proceeded issuing the traffic ticket to the bus driver.
Meanwhile, the Lucky 7 Jayross bus (TXJ-438) of driver Dick Soriano and his conductor Gilbert Gonzales was impounded to Marikina City after they attacked Richard Morales who apprehended them for violating the bus close-door policy.
Morales said he flagged down Soriano around 7 a.m. on the northbound of Edsa near Cabrera Street in Pasay City for violation of the said policy, which carries a P1,000 fine.
Soriano and Gonzales are facing assault of a person in authority and physical injury charges for the incident.
MMDA acting chairman Thomas Orbos said the agency is continuously cleansing its ranks of bad eggs as evidenced by the apprehension of erring bus drivers who tried to corrupt the traffic enforcers.
“These apprehensions are the result of our no-nonsense enforcement of traffic regulations. If these traffic enforcers let these unscrupulous drivers off the hook and accept the bribe money, the consequence is that these motorists will continue to disregard our traffic rules and regulations, which in turn, compounds our traffic condition,” he said.
Orbos also said his agency will not tolerate erring traffic personnel but he will not stand by to see traffic enforcers who are only doing their jobs to be ignored and even hurt.
“We’ll see to it that the full force of the law will be applied on these erring motorists to make them realize that we mean business in enforcing the traffic rules and regulations,” Orbos said.
Just recently, more than 40 people were hurt when an RRCG bus was involved in an accident along Edsa near Estrella Street in Makati City.
