ILOILO City – Councilor Romel Duron pushes for the regularization of traffic aides for them to be deputized by the Land Transportation Office (LTO).
In his privilege speech during Wednesday’s regular session, Duron believes such a measure will resolve the issue on LTO deputation.
It can be noted that the transport agency, pursuant to its guidelines, could not deputize the traffic aides because they are only job hires. They prefer organic or permanent government employees in traffic law enforcement and are deputized to confiscate driver’s licenses and issue a Temporary Operator’s Permit (TOP).
“The problem with the LTO is they will deputize only the organic member of the government. They will not deputize job hires so that is where the problem lies,” said Duron.
On Sept. 14, 2022, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin C. Abalos, Jr. issued a memorandum reiterating pertinent provisions on Road Safety and Transportation specifically Section 3.4 on the Issuance of Traffic Citation Ticket under DILG-DOTC Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 01-2008, that the local government units (LGUs) can issue traffic citation tickets, but only the LTO and their deputized agents can confiscate driver’s licenses.
The question now, however, according to Duron, is whether the city government has enough money to create plantilla positions to make these traffic aides permanent.
“The ball is now in our hands to act as directed to review our ordinances in compliance with the said DILG memorandum,” he added.
In his earlier statement, Mayor Jerry Treñas said the city government could not easily regularize all traffic aides due to PS Cap limitations.
“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?” Treñas said.
The city mayor already wrote a letter to the LTO asking to deputize traffic aides.
He emphasized that if the LTO refuses, he will be compelled to allow the traffic aides to confiscate the licenses of erring drivers.
“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.
Traffic aides under the 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 on 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./PN
