HOUSE Independent Bloc leader Rep. Martin Romualdez of Leyte called on government agencies to a address the problem of road safety amid rising volume of vehicles in the streets as a factor in the growing number of road accidents.
While Romualdez is all praises for the effort being made by the PNP-Highway Patrol Group in instilling order and discipline along the 23.8-kilometer Epifanio De los Santos Avenue, other government agencies such as the Metro Manila Development Authority and the Department of Transportation and Communications should also focus on road safety program for drivers to lessen accidents.
Romualdez pointed out that the heavy congestion in Metro Manila, especially on Edsa affects the country’s productivity and it will definitely be an election issue against administration candidates if Malacañang would not be able to solve it.
“Where is the compassion among our commuters? These ordinary commuters will ask the future leaders of the country if this kind of torture will continue,” said Romualdez.
The Leyte lawmaker also proposed for a transportation summit to push for a road safety program for drivers to lessen fatal road accidents involving public utility vehicle especially buses.
“Isulong natin ang road discipline at courtesy. Aside from the traffic mess, let us resolve the statistics on road accidents attributed to mostly human error,” said Romualdez, a lawyer and president of the Philippine Constitution Association.
The PNP-HPG, which started manning Edsa traffic on Sept. 7, noted that human factor including bad overtaking, over-speeding, drunk driving and using cellphones while driving are among the major causes of the 15,572 traffic accidents recorded last year which resulted in the death of 1,252 people and injuries to nearly 10,000 others.
Meanwhile, Central Luzon police director Chief Supt. Rudy Lacadin warned any police officer from using recovered stolen vehicles for personal or official business.
Lacadain also directed all provincial police directors under his jurisdiction to intensify their anti-carnapping operations and send the carnap gang members to jail.
He said that “command responsibility” will apply to all commanders once any of their men violated the SOP.
“Strict adherence to the existing policy on the use of recovered-stolen/impounded motor vehicle shall be observed by all PNP personnel at all times. Under Standard Operating Procedure 2011-004, all PNP territorial units and NSUs to turn over all recovered and impounded motor vehicles to the PNP-HPG or face administrative sanctions,” he said.