Citom's two 8-hour work shifts worth considering

A proposal to implement two eight-hour work scheme at the City Traffic Operations Management was left by the city council hanging in its regular session last Wednesday, but councilor Sylvan Jakosalem, CITOM board member, said the proposal is something worth looking into.

The proposal was made by councilor Procopio Fernandez who said it would be beneficial to the city if there would be traffic personnel to man the streets even at night, after office hours. However, the proposal was shelved in last week's regular session.

It has been observed that vehicular traffic congestion or frequency of accidents particularly during nighttime has been attributed mostly to motorists not observing traffic rules and regulations.

Pacaña contended that the absence of traffic enforcers during nighttime has contributed to these road mishaps. Likewise, the prevalence of vehicular accidents during nighttime has reportedly opened a public clamor to detail CITOM personnel after the sun has set.

"The absence of traffic enforcers particularly after office hours when traffic congestions are quite heavy has been a contributory factor that emboldens vehicle drivers to wantonly violate basic traffic rules and regulations," Pacaña said.

The councilor said that the strict enforcement of traffic rules and regulations have been severely restricted with the eight-hour work schedule of the CITOM personnel, thus, sacrificing public safety, welfare and convenience of motorists and pedestrians alike.

Pacaña said that the two eight-hour work scheme would address the concern that CITOM does not have enough budget to appropriate overtime pay for traffic enforcers that would be detailed during nighttime considering that the city has a very limited number of traffic enforcers.

Jakosalem said that the city has only around 280 traffic personnel, a number that is reportedly not ideal for the gravity of traffic the city is experiencing.

"It's about time that the city government will take traffic management more seriously. We need to invest on it," Jakosalem said.

Since Pacaña's proposal was shelved, Jakosalem said he will get a copy of the resolution and forward it to the CITOM board for study. - Joeberth M. Ocao