THE Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (Team) is planning to track down the truck driver who was caught in a viral video allegedly bribing an enforcer to avoid being charged with a traffic violation.
Edwin Jumao-as, head of Team, said Monday, March 25, 2024, that they are currently working with their legal department to establish a plan to invite the driver to their office and obtain his explanation of the incident.
The video that circulated on social media showed a Team enforcer receiving something from a truck driver after giving him a citation ticket on a street in Barangay Alang-Alang, Mandaue City around 3 p.m. on Thursday, March 21.
Jumao-as said they also plan to have discussions with the Mandaue City Legal Office to determine the City's intentions regarding legal action against the driver for alleged bribery.
During the ceremonial turnover of facilities at the Mandaue City College on March 25, Mandaue Mayor Jonas Cortes revealed in an interview that the City is currently investigating the alleged bribery incident.
Cortes assured that the enforcer, if found guilty of such an act, will be terminated from his position.
"Rest assured there will be no sacred cows (favored personnel) in my administration, and those found guilty will be terminated," said Cortes.
3 violations
According to Jumao-as, the enforcer involved in the alleged bribery case admitted to charging the driver for only one violation of obstruction, despite the driver having three violations that included illegal counterflowing and disobedience to the traffic enforcer.
Each of these violations carries a penalty of P1,000.
Jumao-as also said that the enforcer did not follow the standard operating procedure for apprehending traffic violators.
The procedure specifically prohibits the enforcer from putting his or her hand inside the driver's vehicle while receiving documents, such as the driver's license or when handling official receipts certificates of registration (OR/CR).
Jumao-as said that as per procedure, the driver who is apprehended should hand over their documents outside the vehicle to the enforcer to avoid extortion.
Although Jumao-as said that based on their assessment, the driver could have been the one to initiate the bribe, accepting the bribe still constitutes a major violation on the part of the enforcer.
Body cams
Jumao-as recently announced that to avoid bribery incidents from happening in the future and to ensure transparency, the Mandaue City Government has decided to implement body cameras for all Team personnel, especially field officers such as enforcers, this year.
As of March, he said only five percent of the approximately 320 Team personnel remain without body cameras.
Jumao-as said they aim to equip all team personnel with body cameras by 2025.
Terminated
Jumao-as said they concluded their investigation on Friday afternoon, March 22, and immediately suspended the involved enforcer from work.
They have also recommended the termination of the enforcer, whose name is Jay (real name withheld for security reasons), to the City Administration, Legal, and Human Resources department on the same day.
Jay has been a Team enforcer since the term of the late former Mandaue mayor Thadeo "Teddy" Ouano. But his work as a Team enforcer was temporarily stopped after that and was only resumed on January 22, 2024.
Jumao-as said they had heard rumors of Jay being involved in extortion, but it was only confirmed when a viral video surfaced on Thursday.
According to Jumao-as, Jay was the 12th enforcer who had been fired for alleged involvement in extortion since Jumao-as took over as Team head in January 2021. (HIC)