DAGUPAN CITY – The Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Region 1 led by Regional Director Teofilo Guadiz Jr. conducted a seminar for 21 Public Order and Safety Office traffic enforcers of the city on December 6 at the city museum upon the request of Mayor Belen T. Fernandez as an initial step for their deputation.
The deputation of the city’s traffic enforcers is in line with the thrust of Mayor Fernandez to instill order and discipline in the streets to ensure smoother flow of traffic in the city.
“We have noticed in the past that our traffic ordinance had been taken for granted by traffic violators and in order to instill discipline in the streets, we sought the assistance of LTO so we could enforce a stiffer penalty for any traffic violations in the street. This is not for the purpose of increasing our collection on traffic penalties but to really discipline our drivers who unscrupulously violate our traffic rules and regulations,†said Fernandez.
Guadiz disclosed that the seminar was timely as there is a need to update the city’s traffic enforcers on the existing traffic rules and regulations especially on the new laws and regulations now being implemented by the LTO.
“The last time we conducted a seminar was eight years ago. This is why we have this seminar to update our traffic enforcers on the new laws and regulations especially on the imposition of penalties which is now higher than in the past before we issue a deputation order,†said Guadiz.
Once the traffic enforcers of the city are issued their deputation order, they will be issued traffic tickets by the LTO.
“We will issue them traffic tickets which they have to submit it to the nearest LTO Office every two weeks for auditing,†said Guadiz.
Guadiz clarified that the deputation is good for three months which is renewable depending on the performance of the traffic enforcers.
For the first week after their deputation, the POSO traffic enforcers will be accompanied by one LTO enforcer for guidance before they will be left totally on their own, Guadiz said.
On the other hand, Fernandez assured the city’s traffic lights along Mayombo and Perez-Rizal junctions will be operational soon.
It can be recalled that the city allotted P15 million for the installation of CCTV cameras and traffic lights in a move to ease the flow of traffic for the city to attract more investors that will provide jobs here.
“We would like to bring our city back to its status as a first class city and we cannot achieve this if our traffic is a mess,†said Fernandez. (Joseph C. Bacani/CIO/Dec. 6, 2016)