BACOLOD City Councilor Dindo Ramos, chairperson of committee on transportation, said Sunday, February 19, he will conduct a separate investigation on the reported violent encounter between a traffic enforcer and a policeman.
Ramos said he was informed that one of the city’s traffic enforcers was hit by a policeman, who is a member of Special Action Force based in Sagay City, Negros Occidental.
Last week, Bobby Uberas was hit by policemen three times as witnessed by two other traffic enforcers.
Uberas’s companions failed to defend him when they saw a firearm tucked in the policeman's waist.
Ramos said he will offer legal assistance to the traffic enforcer and they will file criminal and administrative charges against the policeman.
He added that he will also ask the Bacolod Traffic Authority Office (BTAO) to submit their investigation report to the City Council.
Aside from Uberas, two more traffic enforcers were also hurt by motorists in separate incidents last week.
"I will help our traffic enforcers and if they have a legal basis. we will file a case against the motorists," Ramos said.
He said the traffic enforcers are just doing their job to ensure the smooth flow of traffic, but some erring motorists are abusing them.
On December 2016, the City Council approved City Ordinance 09-16-790 authored by Ramos, allowing traffic enforcers to confiscate driver's license through the issuance of citation tickets to erring drivers.
Ramos said that in previous years, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) did not issue temporary operating permits (TOP) to the traffic enforcers and disallowing them to confiscate driver's license.
The ordinance stated that the erring driver who refuses to turn over his license faces a fine of P500 or a five- to 10-day imprisonment, or both.
Ramos said that from January this year, the BTAO collected a total of P700,000 from erring drivers.
“Our ordinance is effective because several driver's licenses were confiscated. We have so many traffic violators here,” he said.
Ramos added that he will propose an ordinance that will allow BTAO's collections to be deposited to the city's trust so they can use the 70 percent of it for the traffic program.
