The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority announced Wednesday it is recruiting 300 traffic personnel to strengthen the force managing the congested main roads in the National Capital Region, especially the 23.8-kilometer Epifanio de los Santos Avenue.
“We really need additional people at this time. Many enforcers have also been removed because of their involvement in corruption and other cases, so there are actually vacancies,” said MMDA spokesman and Assistant Secretary Pircelyn Pialago.
In related developments:
• The House of Representatives’ Committee on Transportation has adopted a resolution recommending to the executive department the creation of a traffic crisis inter-agency management council to address the traffic problem in Metro Manila and the affected provinces.
The committee, led by Samar Rep. Edgar Mary Sarmiento, on Wednesday passed House Resolution 353 intended “to consolidate and harmonize all transport and traffic policies to address the urgent traffic crisis in Metro Manila and in the Philippines.”
• The Senate Committee on Public Services led by Senator Grace Poe is set to conduct on Oct. 2 its third technical working group meeting on the government’s transportation road map to address the traffic crisis in Metro Manila.
“These can be summed up as PPP”•plano, pondo at pagsisiyasat,” said Poe as she cited the need to have a concrete plan with a time line and deadlines.
Pialago said applicants must have at least two years of college and not more than 35 years old, at least 5’2 in height for female and 5’4 for male.
Those interested are required to bring personal data sheet, transcript of records, clearances from the National Bureau of Investigation and barangay and birth certificates.
Majority of the MMDA traffic enforcers are classified as job order employees. They receive P8,000 a month as a starter but not entitled to benefits and hazard pay.
Chairman Danilo Lim, however, made a promise that traffic enforcers hired based on a job order scheme would be given a permanent position and casual employment status in the agency.
He said the agency was also planning giving hazard pay and other incentives to traffic enforcers whose lives are at risk while on duty.
Lim said it was high time the government recognized the hard work of the MMDA’s front liners manning and managing the traffic along EDSA, the metro’s most busy thoroughfare.
A research study conducted by Emmanuel Baja of the National Institute for Health-University of the Philippines revealed that the traffic enforcers on EDSA face health risks that include high blood pressure and respiratory problems due to exposure to black carbon and heavy metals. With Maricel V. Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta