Red plates, road work and jaywalking

Before anything else, we would like to inform our readers that this column will be moving to a new section starting next week. 

Motorists’ Corner will become part of The Freeman’s Motoring Section, which comes out every Sunday.

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Government vehicles being used for unofficial business can be reported not only to the Land Transportation Office (LTO), but also to the Ombudsman.

If you happen to catch such unauthorized use of these vehicles bearing red plates, please take pictures or video to support your claim.

Several people have brought up this matter up on Facebook, which has also become a way for the citizens to expose anomalies that would have normally just gone unnoticed.

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A reader asked us to follow up on what has happened to the widening of M. Velez St. beside the Capitol building.

Work seems to have ceased, but obviously it hasn’t been completed.

It has been reported that the problem lay on clearing the area of illegal settlers in the area.

Readers have reported that much of the area seems to have been cleared, but work on the road has not been completed.

We hope the Department of Public Works and Highways can shed light on this situation.

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For two weeks, our family played host to our foster son from Japan, who was here for a student exchange program.

One of the things he noticed about our roads, particularly at the South Road Properties, was the lack of paint designating the lanes.

 He was also fascinated at how so many people can fit into a motorcycle and the way people cross the streets just anywhere they feel like doing it.

The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), not too long ago, said that there are 6,000 deaths annually due to jaywalking.

We don’t know if the figures were just for the area covered by the MMDA or if it was nationwide.

Jaywalking is very dangerous, but people don’t seem to care.

There was a report about the city going to be strict about jaywalking, but that remains to be only talk as of now. We hope that the coming elections would not make our officials chicken out from implementing the law against jaywalking.

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If you want traffic updates, you can follow @NLQCebu on Twitter or join the Motorists’ Corner page on www.facebook.com.

You can also send email to [email protected].