Fired traffic staff extort motorists

CEBU, Philippines -  The Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue is now on tight watch over some dismissed traffic workers who still actively pose as authorized traffic enforcers in the city streets and extort money from motorists.

TEAM director Erwin Ermac said four dismissed traffic enforcers took advantage of the truck ban hours and posed themselves as enforcers along the national highway in Barangay Jagobiao.

Once a driver violates a traffic rule, the dismissed enforcers would reportedly stop their vehicle, explain their violation and pretend to issue a citation ticket by holding the black ticket holder tucked on their back.

The driver would then negotiate for a considerable amount just to be avoided being issued with a citation ticket. But it turned out that the ticket holder had no citation tickets at all.

Ermac said the four suspects are already being identified and are just waiting for their victims to formalize their complaints against them for the formal filing of charges in court.

He said dismissed traffic enforcers can do crimes, such as extortion, because they still have their uniforms issued by the city government. The uniforms cannot be confiscated from them as they paid for the same.

Ermac urged the drivers to verify first if the IDs of traffic enforcers are genuine. If found suspicious, he advises drivers to immediately report to TEAM if they were extorted.  (FREEMAN)