THE word war between Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Land Transportation Office (LTO) 7 Director Victor Caindec began a little over three weeks ago.
Last June 25, the mayor announced on his Facebook page that the City would waive fines for owners of new motorcycles who get caught for lacking registration papers. Two weeks after that, he posted: “You are punishing them for not having something that you failed to give.”
The exchange now includes the status of the City’s traffic enforcers and who between the LTO and City is supposed to be responsible for traffic management.
Because of the ongoing construction of an underpass project on a depressed portion of N. Bacalso Ave., Ojharra Catherine Manlosa needs to leave her house at least an hour and half before she is supposed to report for work.
Her workplace, though, is only a 10-kilometer drive away from her home in Barangay Bulacao, Talisay City. Before the underpass project started last year, it only took the digital media specialist 30 minutes at most to reach her workplace.
For almost a year now, Manlosa has been taking public transport before 7 a.m., a schedule she has learned to adjust to and maintain.
But after learning that vehicular traffic might be heavier than usual yesterday because there will be no traffic enforcers to man the Mambaling area, Manlosa had to make some changes.
It takes a toll
“I was afraid that I might be late to work, so I just took a motorcycle-for-hire that’s why I made it on time. But I can’t do that every day because I pay at least P124 for the motorcycle ride. I would still prefer taking the (public utility) jeepney because the fare is only P9. It would have helped if there were traffic enforcers because then the motorists will not violate traffic rules,” she told SunStar Cebu.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña ordered the withdrawal yesterday, July 16, of City Transportation Office (CCTO) personnel from Mambaling, a fallout from his dispute with Land Transportation Office (LTO) 7 Regional Director Victor Caindec.
Osmeña earlier declared that LTO will now be the “sole traffic authority” in the area in response to Caindec’s challenge for him to resign if LTO can ease congestion in the vicinity of the underpass project site.
But Caindec did not send out his personnel to man traffic in the area.
A group of police officers, though, from the Cebu City Police Office Mobile Patrol Group were seen directing traffic on the intersections below the Mambaling overpass.
The 24 traffic enforcers deployed at a portion of C. Padilla St., Tagunol St., Cabreros St., Macopa St., F. Llamas St., Sabellano St., and the Punta Princesa area were reassigned to the central and northern district, but will return to their posts today, said CCTO operations chief Francisco Ouano.
Keep us out of it
“The mayor called me up nga balik ta deployed in Mambaling area tomorrow (Tuesday, July 17),” Ouano said yesterday.
“Di lang jud unta nila damayon ang people sa ilang away and humanon lang jud unta dayun ang underpass kay naa naman na diha. Di mahuman ang struggle sa mga taga-south if di na mahuman nga project,” Manlosa said.
The same call for both camps to set aside their differences for the public’s general welfare was made by Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella.
“Hinaot unta we’ll just perform our respective tasks, the mandate given to us either as an elected or appointed official. We have an important role to play under the general welfare clause of the Local Government Code, and of course, also on the part of the appointed official, dili unta ipatigbabaw ang pagpasakitay. Unahon kung unsay makaayo sa katawhan (Let’s not prioritize insults. Let’s work first on what will be good for the people),” he said.
At City Hall, Osmeña admitted that he spearheaded the hanging and posting of tarpaulins on several flyovers surrounding the Mambaling area. The tarpaulins showed a public advisory, which read that concerns on traffic may be sent to Caindec since Osmeña has already given the City’s traffic jurisdiction over Mambaling to LTO.
“Yes, of course. He had an open declaration. That’s what he wants, that’s what he gets. I’m very concerned that our constituents are suffering because it takes them several months to get their registration. That’s the central issue here. He diverts the attention,” Osmeña said.
The mayor had said that he plans to file charges against the LTO officials who are responsible for the delay in vehicle registrations.
Caindec, however, believed that Osmeña was out of line and should instead focus on the problems that the city is facing.
This sparked the ongoing rift between the two government officials.
Caindec has also declined the mayor’s offer to send personnel and equipment to help the LTO 7 work on registration documents in its backlog. He said the agency is reorganizing the registration process and pointed out that some of the delayed papers were from the previous administration yet, which ended in July 2016.
A lack of personnel or machines is not the main problem. “That’s not the problem, the problem is the process. He tries to give you solutions to smokescreen the real issue. The real issue is that he is incompetent in running this city and now he’s trying to go over my job,” Caindec told reporters.
He again suggested to the mayor to focus on traffic enforcers and personnel who have been working for about two decades already but still remain job-order employees. (with Michael Rey M. Cortes, CIT-U Intern)