source: philstar.comMANILA, Philippines - Chairman Francis Tolentino of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has offered P100,000 for information that would lead to the arrest of the driver of a speeding bus that rammed a taxi carrying journalist Lourdes Estella-Simbulan, who was killed in the accident, Malacañang said yesterday.
Deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte also said policemen on motorcycles would be deployed on Commonwealth Avenue to arrest drivers of overspeeding vehicles.
“The MMDA has put up a reward to locate the bus driver,” she said.
Traffic enforcers will use sensors to detect the speed of vehicles on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City.
Speaking over radio dzBB, Tolentino said yesterday the MMDA will re-evaluate the traffic program in the accident-prone thoroughfare.
“We will also introduce the use of speed radars on board our motorcycle units,” he said.
“These will identify violators, and once they are pulled over, we can have the violation tickets printed and issued to drivers.”
In a separate phone interview, Tolentino said the radar-equipped motorcycles of traffic enforcers can capture or lock the speed of the vehicles.
Additional will also augment the 99 traffic enforcers on Commonwealth Avenue to ensure they are in the area for 24 hours, he added.
The death last Friday of Estella, who was pinned down inside a taxi by an over speeding bus, was the first major accident in the area since they implemented traffic reforms six months ago, Tolentino said.
Angara: Keep roads safe
Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara wants the government to use a portion of the P10 billion yearly collections from the road users’ tax to keep roads safe.
He said income from the Motor Vehicle User’s Charge (MVUC) is projected to reach P10.6 billion this year.
Under the law, 7.5 percent of collections of the road user’s tax must be spent for road safety, he added.
Angara said Republic Act 8794 requires that the 7.5 percent shall be kept under a Special Road Safety Fund to be managed by the Department of Public Works and Highways.
He called for “legislation to allow other agencies with non-engineering mandates to access the road safety fund.”
“The idea is to let agencies involved in road traffic enforcement, for example, to have a piece of the pie, so that they can put more ‘boots on the ground’ so to speak in accident-prone areas like Commonwealth (Avenue),” he said.
Angara demanded “more proof” from the government that the “MVUC does work for those who pay for them.”
By his calculation, the minimum 250,000 motorists who regularly use the 12.4-kilometer Commonwealth Avenue “collectively cough up half-a-billion pesos a year in MVUC payments.”
“If this is the case, then at least on this 12-kilometer stretch of road alone proof must be shown, in terms of better traffic management and roads, that the MVUC is plowed back to the (road users),” he said.
“This should actually be template not only for Commonwealth but for all roads all over the country as MVUC collections are not peanuts.”
Angara said MVUC collections from 2006 to 2009 reached P33.44 billion, largely due to the almost doubling of the number of motor vehicles from 3.7 million in 2000 to 6.7 million in 2010, half of which were motorcycles.
Taxes paid by motorists should not only be used to finance “tuwid na daan (straight path)” type of governance but “ligtas na daan (safe roads)” as well, he added. — With Aie Balagtas See, Paolo Romero
source: philstar.com
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