MOTORISTS in Cebu City should start getting used to dealing with enforcers from the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO), instead of Citom enforcers they encounter in the streets.
Starting this week, the City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) will take on the new name to implement a 2010 ordinance creating a department out of Citom.
Traffic enforcers, parking attendants and other CCTO personnel will also have a new look.
The CCTO is set to change the color of their polo shirts from blue or yellow to neon green.
But apart from the name of the office and the uniforms, lawyer Rey Gealon said nothing much will change in the department after he assumed as its head last week.
In a phone interview yesterday, he said he does not think adopting the new name will cause confusion among the public.
Clarification
“The use of the name CCTO instead of Citom will not in any way cause confusion because the organization is intact, the divisions under it are still the same. The major change would probably be that in all our communication and in our uniforms, the people will no longer see the name Citom,” Gealon said.
The Citom Board will continue to exist as the policy-making body of CCTO, he clarified.
As for using neon green for the new color of the uniforms, Gealon said he does not know if the color was chosen because it is the official color of Team Rama. He said it had already been decided before he joined the traffic body.
Gealon said the department will focus on ensuring optimum utilization of traffic utilities, conducting continuous traffic education, conducting impartial and effective enforcement of traffic laws and regulations, and pro-active transportation and traffic management.
As stated in the ordinance, the department opened five divisions—traffic enforcement division, traffic operations and parking division, planning division, education division and communications division.
The ordinance creating the CCTO was approved in June 2010 to professionalize the City’s traffic management, specifically the maintenance of traffic signals and other equipment. It was proposed to better address concerns on road arteries, urban transport link confederation and demands for higher mode of transportation.