DUMAGUETE CITY -- A ranking official of the Philippine National Police (PNP) based at the national headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City has challenged police personnel here to strictly implement traffic laws as deputized agents of the Land Transportation Office (LTO).
“Yung natutunan ninyo dito, kailangan ma-apply ninyo pag kayo na ay deputized at mag responde sa mga traffic accidents (What you learned from this course must be applied seriously once you are deputized and when you respond to traffic accidents),” Chief Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, deputy director for operations of the Directorate for Operations of the PNP in Camp Crame, told participants of the LTO’s Deputation Seminar and Traffic Investigation Course here.
The four-day course, spearheaded by the LTO-Dumaguete District Office and supported by the provincial government of Negros Oriental, reeled off at the Visionaire’s Lounge of the Negros Oriental Convention Center here Tuesday.
Lawas exhorted the attendees to aim to bring down the number of traffic violations and other traffic-related cases in their areas of responsibility, noting that in Negros Oriental alone, these top the crime volume list.
“At the national level, we are seeing that there is an emerging concern as far as traffic-related incidents are concerned,” he told more than 80 police personnel and two civilians who are applying for LTO deputation after the seminar-training.
According to him, traffic-related incidents comprise about 40 percent of the total crime volume in the country.
A total of 112,482 road accidents were recorded from January to June 2018 as shown in PNP statistics, according to Lawas, who was formerly the chief of the PNP’s Crime Research Analysis Center.
Region 7 (Central Visayas), comprising the provinces of Negros Oriental, Cebu, Bohol and Siquijor, ranks second to the National Capital Region in having the highest number of vehicular accidents during the first semester of 2018, PNP records show.
At the provincial level, Dumaguete City ranked first among the towns and cities in Negros Oriental with the highest number of traffic-related incidents, followed by Bayawan City.
Among the 30 barangays in this capital city, Barangay 3 in the Poblacion (central district) had the highest number of road accidents, police records also show.
According to Lawas, there is an urgent need for LTO deputation of PNP personnel so that this would “empower the policemen to start enforcing RA (Republic Act) 4136”, referring to the Land Transportation and Traffic Code.
Lawas also warned the police personnel attending the seminar-training to observe proper decorum and procedures while enforcing traffic laws, to avoid unnecessary and even ugly confrontations with potential violators.
“Usa kini nga problema nga atong masugatan (This is one problem encountered) not only by police but other traffic law enforcers because there are adverse situations that we cannot avoid,” he said.
It is a normal reaction for a person to resist apprehension and that is why a traffic enforcer must make the necessary introductions and inform that person of his or her violation, he added.
For her part, LTO-Dumaguete District Office chief Dr. Alberta Janine Flores Lawas disclosed that only six LTO personnel here have been deputized to enforce RA 4136, and only four from the Highway Patrol Group.
“That is not enough to cover the entire province of Negros Oriental,” she said.
With the deputation of PNP personnel from the different towns and cities in the province, Dr. Lawas is optimistic that there will be better implementation of traffic laws, rules, and regulations.
She explained that while some local government units have their own local ordinances related to traffic, they could not enforce RA 4136 unless they have LTO deputized agents.
Dr. Lawas explained that after completion of the seminar-training, the participants will be asked to comply with the necessary requirements so that the LTO 7 office in Cebu City could immediately issue their deputation orders.
On Friday, the participants will be subjected to a practical application out in the streets, so that they would have first-hand experience in the issuance of the Temporary Operator’s Permit, which the LTO or its deputized agents will issue during the apprehension of traffic violators, she said. (PNA)
