Following the success of the Motherly Traffic Attendants program in elementary schools across the city, Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada is planning to recruit and train more “mommy traffic enforcers” who will be deployed in the city’s public high schools.
Estrada said he wants to continue expanding the program to cover both grade schoolers and high school students, who are constantly exposed to traffic accidents in the road.
“That is our target, train more mommy enforcers to assist students, both elementary and high school, in the road and help prevent accidents,” he said.
Estrada came up with the plan after the recent graduation from training of 260 women traffic enforcers, the first batch of auxiliary traffic personnel trained under the city government’s traffic program.
Members of this women’s corps of traffic enforcers are deployed outside the elementary school campuses with one primary mission: To help schoolchildren cross the street and get to school or their homes safely.
Apart from being force multipliers in traffic management and road security, Estrada said this program also provides Manileño mothers a steady source of income while doing civic duties.
“So far, we’ve been getting positive feedback concerning our mommy traffic enforcers. They’ve proven themselves to be dependable and hardworking, and we can trust them with the safety of our children, being mothers themselves,” Estrada said.
Manila Traffic and Parking Bureau chief Dennis Alcoreza welcomed Estrada’s plan. He said mommy traffic enforcers have been proven to be of big help.
“That’s why now we are pursuing the same program for high schools in Manila,” Alcoreza said.
With the supervision of an MTPB sector commander, the women enforcers work in shifts of their own choosing—from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., or from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.—from Monday to Friday. Each receives a monthly salary of P6,000.
According to the global advocacy group Safe Kids Worldwide, road accidents are the top cause of unintentional deaths among children ages one to 19.
Alcoreza also cited a report from the World Health Organization that said 186,000 children below 18 years old die each year due to road crashes, 38 percent of whom were pedestrians.
In the Philippines, 96 children die every day due to road accidents, making it the second most common type of killing accident in the country for children aged five to 12, according to WHO.
