WITH students coming back to school after the two-month summer break, the city’s Road Traffic Authority (RTA) and the Cagayan de Oro Police Office (Cocpo) assures the public of securing the opening of classes in public schools today.
City’s traffic consultant lawyer Jose Edgardo Uy said there are no major changes in the flow of tasks as their prime duties are to lessen traffic congestion in the city and secure people’s safety on the road.
For the entire school year, two RTA personnel are assigned in every school to ensure safety of the elementary and high school students.
“Nothing has changed much as back-to-school is typical already. But we have planned things out on how and where to deploy our personnel and additional enforcers in the field,” Uy said.
With almost 9000 students in Misamis Oriental General Comprehensive High School (MOGCHS), RTA will close the entry to Tiano-Makahambus streets to ease the congestion in Velez-Makahambus streets.
With 180 traffic enforcers deployed to the field, Uy assured that every school will have an RTA officer who can accommodate the people in the area.
In Divisoria, the pilot project of Hapsay Dalan where strict rules on jaywalking, illegal parking and loading and unloading are imposed, RTA deployed 20 more enforcers there.
Cocpo spokesperson Lemuel Gonda also assured there would be police visibility in the city as the police prepare for the school opening.
Gonda said they have received a directive two weeks ago that there should be maximization of police deployment in every school and ‘hotspot’ areas in the city.
“Just like RTA, every school will have two personnel that will be assigned to guard the safety of the people and the students especially and to assist RTA in whatever circumstance they will encounter,” Gonda said.
Cocpo also tapped the barangay police (tanod) for the security they could give to their community since there are also schools in their barangays.
“Expect that the police presence will be at maximum level since there will be roving too […] Since the directive has been passed to us, we immediately readied ourselves. This will continue even after the school year ends,” he said.