MMDA launches anti-mulcting hotline

Sunday, February 5, 2012

THE Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) launched Sunday a hotline where motorists can report mulcting traffic enforcers and any abuses they encountered from agency personnel.
 
MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said the public may call or text complete details of the incident at mobile number 0929-4000572. Complainants need not identify themselves when using the hotline, he added.

The details, he said, should include the time and date and the name of MMDA enforcer involve.

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Tolentino said the hotline would complement the inter-agency drive launched last year by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DOLG) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to get rid of unscrupulous traffic and law enforcement officers preying on hapless motorists by forcing them to shell out money in exchange for a lesser traffic offense.
 
At the same time, Tolentino also appealed to motorists, particularly drivers of public utility vehicles (PUV) to do their part in the anti-mulcting campaign by not offering bribes when accosted for traffic violations and following traffic laws and regulations.
 
But if the anti-mulcting hotline represent the "stick" approach of the MMDA to the problem, Tolentino have also unveiled a "papuri" hotline at 0905-3989288, where the public can send their words of thanks and encouragement to good deeds done by traffic enforcers and other agency personnel.
 
"Itong papuri hotline ay para naman mabigyang pansin din natin ang mga magagandang nagagawa at ginagawa ng ating mga traffic enforcers at iba pang tauhan," he said, adding despite reports of bad eggs in their ranks, majority of enforcers are doing their job despite the low pay and risks encountered in the performance of duty.
 
He said the move would further encourage traffic enforcers to continue doing their duties knowing that they have the public support.
 
Last year, an MMDA enforcer, Larry Fiala, was shot and injured by an irate motorist whom he accosted in Cubao, Quezon for violating the number-coding scheme. A week after that, two traffic enforcers, Rodivic Amante and John Rey Monghit, were mauled by a group of men they nabbed for another violation in Parañaque City. (AH/Sunnex)