THE Department of Transportation will take over traffic management along national roads in Metro Manila, with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and the Highway Patrol Group hoping to resolve the worsening vehicular logjams in the national capital.
Following a directive from Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, an inter-agency traffic management team composed of the heads and key officials of the MMDA and the HPG will be merged to attached agencies of the Transportation Department to strengthen traffic enforcement with a united chain of command.
The attached agencies include the Land Transportation Office and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.
Officials said Metro Manila will be split into at least 10 traffic sectors with a sectoral head for each.
Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, said that while the Executive is still awaiting Congress to grant emergency powers to President Rodrigo Duterte, “we just cannot sit idly.”
“Government has to provide immediate solution to bring relief to many of our weary commuters,” Andanar told the Manila Standard.
In related developments:
• The minority bloc in the House of Representatives proposed measures to help the national government’s resolve to address the worsening traffic gridlocks in Metro Manila, coinciding with a call by a member urging the local government units to shift gear in ensuring an effective enforcement of traffic rules and regulations.
House Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said the problem on traffic congestion has become alarming and short-term solutions should also be considered.
• Authorities in Metro Manila arrested 18,401 persons caught violating the capital’s anti-jaywalking policy—described as a minor offense but among causes of accidents and traffic congestion.
MMDA Chairman Emerson Carlos urged the public to use the footbridges—at least 100 in the metropolis—as he stressed the dangers of jaywalking, telling pedestrians to use designated crosswalks.
• The HPG told a news briefing that a seven-minute reduction has been noted on travel time along the 23.8-km Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), which stretches from Monumento in Caloocan City to the Mall of Asia in Pasay City.
But HPG Chief Supt. Antonio Gardiola stopped short of going into specifics, saying only “this is due to closer coordination among traffic units of the national government and the local government units.”
Transportation Department spokesperson Cherie Mercado-Santos said the inter-agency initiative is a necessary to ease traffic congestion pending the resolution of an appeal for Emergency Powers.
“We are focusing on enforcement now while waiting for Congress to grant us emergency powers. We have to do what we can do now,” she said.
Gardiola said streamlining the different traffic agencies is seen to address Metro traffic better.
“Kapag watak-watak tayo, mahihirapan ang mga tao on the ground. But if we will be given authority under one chain of command, we can now easily issue orders,” he said.
Operating as one agency, the HPG and the MMD will be sharing assets such as manpower and motorcycles.
The HPG will also hook up with the MMDA command center for better traffic monitoring.
Andanar said the interagency traffic team is still drafting operational policies to avoid overlapping functions.
The agency will also come up with uniform penalties for traffic violations across all cities, with traffic personnel to undergo joint training.
Malacanang earlier assured the public that President Rodrigo Duterte won’t go overboard should Congress give him “emergency powers” to resolve the worsening traffic situation in Metro Manila.
“The emergency powers being requested are not absolute and limited only to traffic,” Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella told a news briefing.
Describing the country’s transport problems as “chaotic,” Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, with other transport officials, assured senators at the hearing on emergency powers that everything will be addressed and time-bound.
Suarez proposed that Congress can legislate measures to minimize the number of vehicles plying the major streets like EDSA as an initial move while the administration is improving the transport system with more trains and rapid transport buses.
Suarez told a news conference: “In the interim, while we are significantly improving our public transport system, we can legislate certain measures with regard to private car ownership and improve State intervention. First, we should implement a No Plate Car policy.
Second, No Income Tax Return , No Car Policy. Third, vehicles 35 years and older should not be allowed on the streets.
Fourth, as regards state intervention, it is no secret that our traffic enforcers’ hands are most of the time tied down because the biggest violators, literally, of simple traffic rules are buses and trucks owned by people.”
Suarez criticized the previous administration for lack of foresight with regard to the worsening traffic condition suffered by the Filipinos, especially in Metro Manila.
He added: “I remember during the campaign season that all the candidates agreed there was no silver bullet with regard to this issue. Add to this is the fact this administration will be starting with a tabula rasa, the reason being that its predecessor did not even formulate and implement a reasonable traffic decongestion plan.
Hence, nothing to inherit, nothing to improve upon.”
He noted that a total 1.74 million were running through the streets of the metropolis as of 2012, compared to car sales of more than 6 million as of March 2016.
Given this, Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza urged Secretary Tugade, MMDA officer in charge Emerson Carlos and even President Duterte “to inspire” the LGUs and get them involved in the national government’s effort to address the traffic woes.
“The DOTC cannot do it alone,” Atienza said, adding the 27,000 barangays, 17 mayors and 20,000 tanods all over Metro Manila should be tapped to help resolve the traffic problem.
Atienza said the LGUS are more familiar with junctions and traffic chokepoints in their respective areas.
MMDA chairman Carlos said the anti-jaywalking campaign aimed to highlight the dangers of jaywalking and discipline the public to cross the road only at designated places.
In 2014, members of the Metro Manila Council, the MMDA’s policy-making body, approved the agency’s proposal to increase the penalty against jaywalking from P200 to P500 following reports jaywalking incidents were increasing despite numerous government efforts to educate undisciplined pedestrians.
The MMDA stated that despite the huge amount of taxpayers’ money that had gone into the construction of footbridges, people continued to cross busy streets and dangerous portions of the roads where they are not supposed to.
Passed in 1995, the anti-jaywalking ordinance imposed by MMDA traffic enforcers initially penalized violators with a P150 fine, to be paid within seven days, and requires them to attend a seminar and render community service of not more than one day.
Since Monday this week, Secretary Tugade met with officials of the HPG, MMDA, LTO and LTFRB to further strengthen coordination as they await lawmakers’ approval on the proposed emergency power to address traffic problem in the metropolis.
”The intention of the Secretary is to address the actionable areas first while waiting for the granting of the emergency powers,” he said.