Three days after Tomas recall: Traffic aides back in South

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu city government will deploy traffic personnel back to Barangay Mambaling starting today, three days after Mayor Tomas Osmeña ordered their recall.

Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) operations chief Francisco Ouano told The Freeman yesterday that the mayor had called him and instructed him to deploy the traffic personnel back to the South District due to the heavy traffic experienced there.

Three days ago, Osmeña pulled the city’s traffic personnel out of Barangay Mambaling and decided to let LTO deal with the situation.

Yesterday morning, the mayor already said he would consider fielding the traffic aides back to the south if LTO can’t deal with the problem there.

“We will see… until it is clearly established that they’re completely incompetent… I’m giving them a chance now. Do it. Don’t tell me, I will show… hambogero kaayo,” Osmeña said, referring to LTO-7 Director Victor Caindec.

Osmeña’s decision to pull the city’s men out of Mambaling was spurred by Caindec’s challenge for the mayor to resign if LTO can do a better job with the traffic situation.

“Mayor, ang Mambaling dugay na ka palpak. What’s the metric to improve and I’ll show you how it’s done. Nya mo resign ka og mabuhat?” reads Caindec’s Facebook post last Thursday night.

Traffic in the south has been huge burden to motorists since last year due to the ongoing works on the underpass project on N. Bacalso Avenue. A week ago, a new traffic scheme had to be put in place as phase four of the project started.

Caindec posted the challenge after Osmeña threatened to sue the agency’s officials for their alleged failure to release the registration of vehicles and motorcycles on time.

The mayor said Caindec made an issue out of the traffic situation to divert attention from the 13,000 vehicle registrations that have not been processed.

“Nangita lang siya og lusot ba… I will show you the way. You know, I am very concerned that our constituents are suffering because it takes them several registrations…that’s the central issue here. So he diverts the attention, he says about the traffic,” Osmeña said.

Yesterday, a streamer hung at a skywalk in Barangay Mambaling read: "Traffic management for this area is exclusively under the jurisdiction of LTO-7 and regional director Victor Caindec."

After he decided to pull traffic personnel out of Mambaling, Osmeña also took to Facebook his offer for the city to help LTO process the registration papers.

Caindec, however, did not give in.

“Why does he seem to be very interested in LTO? Is there something in my office that makes him lose sleep?” he said.

He said the problem in Mambaling “is a symbolism of the ineptness of our city mayor to solve that problem."

In a separate interview, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella said he hopes Osmeña and Caindec can set their differences aside so as not to compromise the delivery of basic services.

“Hinaot unta nga they will just perform our respective tasks. The mandate given us either as an elective official or as an appointive official. We have an important role to play. Under the general welfare clause of the Local Government Code and also on the part of appointive official, dili unta ipagtibabaw ang pagpasakitay. Unahon og unsay makaayo sa katawhan,” he said.

At the Police Regional Office – 7, Director Debold Sinas said his men are ready to assist motorists in the south.

“Mo-support ra ta, whatever the other government agencies see fit, to help ease the traffic, we can always adjust, if it would help,” Sinas said.

Meanwhile, at the Capitol, Provincial Focal Person for Traffic Management Jonathan Tumulak said the Mambaling situation should be an eye opener for barangays to capacitate tanods in managing traffic, particularly in direction and control.

He said it is an essential for tanods to learn these skills so they can help maintain order in their barangay in the absence of traffic personnel and even the police.

Joey Herrera, manager of the Cebu South Bus Terminal, said the schedule of buses has not been affected too much. (FREEMAN)