An initial 200 traffic enforcers will undergo skills enhancement training from experts of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) while in tandem with the University of the Philippines National Center for Transportation Studies (UP NCTS) which will help finalize the local government’s traffic academy. ‘This is the direction of City Mayor Jerry P. Treñas, for the academy to be the backbone of the skills enhancement of our traffic enforcers,’ said Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO) head Jeck Conlu in a press conference on Tuesday. Antonio B. Pagulayan Jr., MMDA director for traffic education, said they are glad the city has decided to establish a traffic academy to serve as a training arm for its enforcers. ‘We believe that solving traffic problems in the local government is a shared responsibility of every sector and not only the government. We believe this traffic academy will soon be an institution to continuously provide training not only for our traffic enforcers,’ Pagulayan said, adding they don’t want this city to experience the same congestion in Metro Manila. With the academy, it could help anticipate the effect of motorization since traffic is also one of the consequences of being a progressive city, he added. Meanwhile, the MMDA team will focus on capacitating traffic enforcers on the operation aspect, particularly the enforcement, to be followed by technical aspects during their training from Aug. 9-12. ‘Our focus is more on incident response, on special events management, and even roadworthy management,’ Pagulayan added. He said they also hoped to come up with a training manual for traffic enforcers. Conlu said the training will be done quarterly, especially if there are new traffic-related ordinances
Source: Philippines News Agency