By Egay Uy
MY first engagement in public service was in 2013 when Mayor Oscar S. Moreno invited me to join his team. Through the Task Force Hapsay Dalan, I managed the traffic office as its overseer, with a two-fold mission – one, implement traffic laws, rules, and regulations, and two, address the reported massive corruption in that office. I hope I somehow succeeded in both, even if only partially.
The difficulty factor in the task was enormous because the ultimate concern that had to be addressed was the wrongly-directed discipline of most road users and of those who were supposed to implement the law, both on the road and in the traffic office. It was no joke.
Addressing the traffic situation then would have been much easier by merely revising the geometrical designs choke points, practically redesigning the entire road network, and installing smart traffic gadgets. But that would take a lifetime and a huge sum of resources to do. Changing attitudes of road users and enforcers, and improving on-road discipline was the other approach.
But people, both the road users and those on the enforcement side, have their respective mindsets already. Road users have been used to the padrino system that often got violators of traffic rules off the hook. Connections then were more common than today’s internet subscriptions. And because of relentless operations and implementation of traffic laws, one dedicated traffic officer was gunned down in December of 2016. That was more than six years ago.
Last week, another traffic officer was gunned down while having a break from another relentless implementation not only of traffic laws but of a Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) memorandum requiring local governments to rid highways of supposedly slow-moving contraptions.
By this event, it may be surmised that the clearing of roads for every road users’ convenience may have hit a thick wall with highly influential people behind it. Or, it could also be merely an off-the-hip reaction by some of those who have been directly hit by the relentless operations.
Whatever it was, ending a man’s life who merely implemented the law was one dastardly act that should be condemned until the heavens fall, so to speak.
Less than one year into the task, Col. Zali has to face this no-joke incident. I feel for you, Sir. I am positive you will weather this storm. If only the old guns, the other organics in the traffic office could do justice to their salary grades.
(Egay Uy is a lawyer. He chairs the City’s Regulatory and Complaint Board, co-chairs with the city mayor the City Price Coordinating Council, and chairs the city’s Joint Inspection Team. He retired as a vice president of Cepalco.)
