Garma relieves 9 traffic cops

CEBU, Philippines — Nine traffic police investigators were relieved for negligence of work because it took them more than an hour to arrive at the scene of a vehicular accident.

Senior Superintendent Royina Garma, director of CCPO, told reporters in a press conference yesterday that the vehicular crash happened at the same time she was attending an event inside a mall in the South Road Properties led by the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas last Monday.

"Ni-relieve ko yung traffic isang araw. They are not doing their jobs. It’s the job of the police to investigate there was a vehicular accident that happened in SM during the event of PRO7," she said.

She said that she personally called the Cebu City Traffic Patrol Group (TPG) but after an hour, there was still no investigator.

Personnel from the Cebu City Traffic Office (CCTO), formerly known as CITOM, were the ones who responded and did the sketching and initial investigation.

Garma said that it should not be the case since CCTO men are only mandated to manage the flow of traffic.

"I personally called the traffic group to send an investigator. One hour na ako sa loob wala pa akong nakitang  investigator. It's not the job of CITOM (CCTO) to investigate. It’s the job of the traffic investigators, CCTO should be there to manage flow of vehicles," she said.

She added that she also heard that investigators would not go out of their office to investigate.

"So I learned na hindi pumupunta   ang pulis sa place of incident and nasa office lang. Mali yun, katamaran yun ng pulis. So I relieved the whole shift. Baka tinatamad na sila sa tagal nila diyan, akala siguro nila indispensable sila, and not doing their job," she said.

In the meantime, the nine cops will be assigned to Cebu Mobile Force Company (CMFC).

The Freeman attempted to get the side of Senior Inspector Dexter Basirgo, chief of the Traffic Patrol Group, for comment but calls were not answered.

In a Facebook post, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña informed the public to contact the police in case of traffic accidents.

“The police have ordered CITOM to no longer resolve traffic accidents. If you are involved in an accident, sorry, we can no longer help you. Please contact the police directly. CITOM can only be in the area to manage traffic flow,” portion of his post reads.

The post has earned around 400 various reactions from the netizens and has been shared for 196 times as of yesterday.

In the comment section, some netizens expressed their thoughts about it.

“This is nice and they're right though. Traffic officers' jobs only require them to direct traffic flow while the police investigate vehicular accidents. The CITOM doesn't resolve traffic accidents like Mayor Tom's caption says since it's always settled in a police station,” Thea Go said.

The FREEMAN tried to get the side of Cebu City Transportation Office operation’s head Francisco “Isko” Ouano but he was not available as of press time. — MBG (FREEMAN)