ILOILO City – Mayor Jerry Treñas wants city traffic aides deputized by the Land Transportation Office (LTO). He wrote a letter to the agency relative to this.
However, Treñas emphasized that if the LTO will refuse to deputize traffic aides, he will be compelled to allow the confiscation of erring drivers’ licenses by the traffic aides.
“We try to be compliant to the directives (of the Department of Interior and Local Government) without saying nga unconstitutional ang aton ordinansa because that was never declared by the court to be unconstitutional. We will comply with the directive of Secretary (Benhur) Abalos but if LTO will not deputize out traffic aides then we have no choice but to continue with the implementation of the ordinance,” said.
Abalos earlier issued a memorandum stating that only LTO personnel are authorized to confiscate the licenses of erring drivers.
Prior to the DILG order, however, the traffic aides under Transportation Management and Traffic Regulation Office (TMTRO) have been confiscating driver’s licenses of motorists caught violating traffic laws within the city.
The city’s Regulation Ordinance No. 338 authorizes them and the policemen to confiscate driver’s licenses.
Also, the Regional Trial Court (RTC) – Branch 26, in a decision dated May 22, 2017, junked for lack of merit the petition of Atty. Daniel Cartagena questioning the validity of the ordinance and ruled that the city government’s TMTRO has the power to confiscate driver’s licenses for certain violations.
For insisting the city’s stand on the issue, Treñas invokes “local autonomy.”
“That is part of local autonomy. If the Supreme Court will finally rule that the ordinance is unconstitutional then we will not implement,” he added.
Meanwhile, as per information that reached him, Treñas shared that LTO will not deputize the traffic aides because they are just job hires and not regular employees.
“Indi sila mag-deputize kay job hires. Ti, kon amo na we will be forced to implement the ordinance. You know let’s talk about local autonomy,” he said.
He reiterated that the LTO law was approved in 1964 while the Local Government Code under which the ordinance creating the traffic aides was enacted in the 1980s.
Traffic aide positions were created to fill a gap when the Philippine National Police concentrated only in peace and order.
“Ngaa indi kita ka permanent sa mga traffic aides, because we are under the PS Cap. Indi kita ka pagusto butang diri regular. Ti, they will fault us because of that? Ako we want to work with the national government. We will always follow the directive but if they will make it impossible for us then we proceed with our ordinance,” Treñas stressed./PN
