AFTER hearing reports about traffic enforcers spending their own money for new uniforms, Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia has promised to launch an investigation and reimburse expenses.
Garcia said in a press conference on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, that there is an annual clothing allowance for the Cebu City Transportation Office’s (CCTO) field personnel.
“I will not allow that they will have to pay for it because we have clothing allowance. I will look into that as this is the first time I have heard of it,” he said.
The mayor acknowledged that the CCTO had exhausted its allocated budget for clothing allowance and was awaiting next year’s budget.
He indicated that reimbursements might be included in the upcoming budget if enforcers have indeed incurred personal expenses.
Sticking to CCTO
Garcia also addressed the issue of frequent name changes for the city’s traffic office, affirming that CCTO would retain its name as mandated by a city ordinance. This decision aims to prevent politicization and maintain neutrality in the traffic office’s operations.
“Why do we have to keep on changing the name of our traffic office?” said Garcia.
Alcover’s concerns
The mayor’s statements came in response to concerns raised by City Councilor Pastor “Jun” Alcover Jr. in a Nov. 20 privilege speech.
Alcover highlighted confusion caused by inconsistent CCTO uniforms, which at times resembled attire of other city departments or even habal-habal drivers and barangay tanods.
In response, Garcia has tasked the CCTO with submitting a design for new uniforms that comply with international safety standards. He expressed support for standardizing CCTO uniforms to ensure consistency across administrations.
Spending one’s own money
A female CCTO traffic enforcer, who spoke anonymously to SunStar Cebu on Dec. 6, revealed that some enforcers had spent P1,040 out of pocket for two sets of new uniforms.
The new uniform bears the name “CCTO” on the back portion, which replaces the old neon green sweatshirt with the name “RMA” on
the back.
The traffic enforcer said the CCTO has an allocation of P7,000 per personnel for clothing allowance, but this was already spent on the RMA-designed Type A (a collared polo shirt) and two sweatshirts. Both items are shades of bright neon green. In addition, enforcers were given pants, shoes, a vest, a belt, a badge, and other items.
Some enforcers have opted to buy from thrift stores or ukay-ukay shops for the black long-sleeve shirts and topped them with reflectorized vests, in compliance with the directive of the new CCTO guidelines, particularly those who have not received their new uniforms.
With the changes in uniform design, she said these also resulted in confusion among pedestrians and motorists in identifying the presence of traffic enforcers.
She said there were times when pedestrians who had committed or were about to commit jaywalking would at first ignore them as they were not recognizable.
There were times when they were mistaken for habal-habal or motorcycle taxi drivers due to similarities.
The traffic enforcer urged the City Government to pass a legislative measure mandating the standardization of their uniforms. She also urged the City to disallow traffic enforcers from spending on the expenses for changes in the uniform. / EHP