A POLICE order removing the Cebu City Transportation Office’s (CCTO) authority to investigate traffic accidents is raising questions on whether this change will worsen traffic in Cebu City.
The CCTO received yesterday a letter informing them of Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Royina Garma’s order that traffic investigation will now be a task solely for the traffic police.
“If you are involved in an accident, sorry, we can no longer help you. Please contact the police directly,” Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said in his Facebook post, responding to Garma’s Sept. 18 memorandum on the conduct of investigation of traffic-related cases in the city.
In his letter to CCTO operations head Francisco Ouano, Police Senior Insp. Dexter Balansag Basirgo, officer-in-charge of the CCPO Traffic Group, said that the CCTO personnel’s responsibility when there are vehicular accidents is only to direct the traffic flow at the site.
The investigation and sketching of every vehicular accident will be the task of the police.
“In this regard, the said memo directed this office and all traffic investigators assigned in Police Station 1 to 11 to investigate and sketch every vehicular accident that will transpire in their respective areas of jurisdiction while the traffic group, under my watch, will investigate and sketch all cases of traffic incidents or accidents in the area of SRP (South Road Properties) and the areas of Police Station 3 and Station 5,” reads a portion of the letter dated Sept. 18.
“Meanwhile, CCTO personnel shall only direct the traffic flow in the place where the traffic accidents or incidents transpired,” Basirgo added.
A copy of the letter was posted by Osmeña in his Facebook page yesterday.
“The police have ordered CCTO to no longer resolve traffic accidents. CCTO can only be in the area to manage traffic flow,” he said.
Online, the letter drew various reactions from netizens, some of whom wondered how long they will be stuck in traffic with the police handling all the investigation. “Dugay gani maabot bsan alarma, samot na traffic accident,” one comment reads. (It even takes the police long to respond to an alarm. How much more to a traffic accident?)
“Tama. Pero where are the police? Mas visible ang Citom, mas mograbe ang traffic kay dugayyyyyyyyyy kayo ang police,” a Facebook user commented on Osmeña’s post. (Citom is more visible. Traffic will worsen because the police take looooong to arrive).
CITOM (City Traffic Operations Management) is the old name of CCTO.
“This is 10 steps backward. Purely power-tripping. Can they assure the public that the police can respond faster (or at least at par) with the traffic enforcer on-site?” another one said.
One Facebook user chose to look at it differently: “Eh di hayahay na. Ma-focusan na ang pag man sa traffic #positiveside.”
For his part, CCTO’s Ouano welcomed the development since it will quicken their response time.
The traffic operations chief added that this will minimize traffic interruption.
“It is a good thing because if the traffic police are still far from where the accident happened, we still have to wait for them. But with this new order, the nearest police station will have to respond. We can’t disperse if there’s no police. So it will be faster this time. This will minimize traffic congestions,” he said.
The order came as Garma relieved nine traffic investigators after they failed to respond to a traffic accident at the SRP, which caused heavy traffic there last Monday night.
“I personaly called the traffic group to send investigators to investigate the traffic incident. I was there for one hour. It was personnel from CCTO who responded. So they are all relieved,” she said.
Garma immediately ordered the transfer of the nine police officers who were on duty that time, including their head, Supt. Conrado Manatad, to the City Mobile Force Company.
“Maybe they got lazy because they have been assigned in that area for a very long time. They thought they are indispensable but they are not doing their job already. So now, they will become mountain police,” she said.
Basirgo, who was the deputy chief of the Mambaling Police Station, replaced Manatad.
The CCPO is still looking for the replacement of the nine relieved officers from other units, who will then undergo a seminar on traffic laws.
The relieved officers were assigned to patrol the mountain barangays of the city and respond to vehicular accidents in the upland villages. RTF, AYB