Davide Backs Osmeña’s ‘No Counterflowing’ Order

Governor Hilario P. Davide III fully supports the decision of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena to impound vehicles that are caught counterflowing.

With the current traffic situation in Cebu City, as well as in neighboring towns and cities, Davide said the executive order to apprehend and impound these vehicles for a month is a good idea.

“I’m in favor of that a hundred percent,” said Davide, in an interview with the media.

When asked if it’s viable in the whole province, Davide said that this can be done although that there are a lot of roads, especially those in faraway areas, that are narrow.

“Ang problema gyud sa mga drivers nato diri is kuwang ug disiplina. Wherever you go, Cebu City, all parts. Even sa mga lagyong lugar, dili lang sa Metro Cebu. You see buses overspeeding, public utility jeepneys speeding and they stop everywhere…” he lamented.

The new regional director for the Land Transportation Office-7, Victor Caindec, who paid a courtesy visit to the governor yesterday, also said that he is in favor of Osmena’s order.

“We fully support the mayor on this move because we feel that it would help further enhance discipline on the roads particularly in the city of Cebu,” said Caindec.

“As far as traffic regulation is concerned particular to the LTO, kana siya (counterflowing) already constitutes to reckless driving. As for the enforcement of these laws, we have always been deferring to the local governement units to implement this,” he added.

Further, Davide will be meeting with traffic officers of all towns and cities in the province soon in order to come up with a system that will be implemented in all areas.

Just this month, Davide met with traffic officials of Talisay City and Minglanilla to address the hounding traffic congestion in both localities.

“I will be meeting again sa tanan na nga mga traffic managers sa LGUs, especially sa Metro Cebu where traffic is very bad, unahon tana. Imbitaron nato ang taga LTO, LTFRB, mga bus operators, mga truckers, all the stakeholders para we can come up with a unified traffic system to ensure the smooth flow of traffic and on how to address accidents sa atong mga roads,” Davide said.

He added that apart from other factors that add to the traffic congestion, there should be more tow trucks that can immediately respond when there are accidents involving vehicles, as well as traffic enforcers who can work fast on resolving accidents so as not to cause further traffic build-up. (Ainjeliz dela Torre-Orong)