CenVis Has 652,828 Vehicles

● While the number of vehicles continued to increase, the government has yet to construct additional roads.

The total number of vehicles registered in Central Visayas had already reached 652,828 or an increase of 27,510 compared to the figure in 2012. Most of these vehicles are operating in Cebu and in other adjacent highly-urbanized cities.

The statistics of the Land Transportation Office (LTO)-7 showed that in 2011 there were 574,640 assorted types of vehicles registered in Region-7, but it went up to 625,318 in the following year and 652,828 as of last December.

This could be the reason why our roads in Cebu City and in other nearby cities and municipalities always experienced heavy traffic anytime of the day, particularly during peak hours in the morning and early evening.

While the number of vehicles continued to increase, the government has yet to construct additional roads or to widen the existing major roads to solve the City’s traffic congestion.

In an interview, traffic enforcers said that abusive drivers have also contributed to the traffic problem because many of them just stop and park their vehicles even in prohibited areas.

However, PUJ drivers claimed that sometimes they are prompted to violate traffic laws not only because of the other competing PUJs in their route, but also to get the most number of passengers in order to make up for the rental of their units.

But while there are so many abusive drivers, particularly those operating passenger jeepneys, the road law enforcers in Central Visayas apprehended only 60,620 erring drivers and issued them with Temporary Operators Permit (TOP) last year.

In 2012, LTO personnel and their deputized agents apprehended 84,794 erring drivers who were caught by them for violating the provisions of Republic Act 4136, or the Transportation and Traffic Code.

LTO Chief Alfonso Tan Jr. had revoked last year the deputation of all civilian deputized agents, including the members of the Task Force Alpha (TFA), and ordered that only regular personnel of LTO can issue TOP’s.

Even the LTO-7 operations branch had stopped conducting operation against erring drivers because of lack of regular personnel assigned in their office.