The Philippine Online Chronicles

Three traffic enforcers were suspended after video evidence caught them receiving bribes from public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers, an Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) official said Friday, reports inquirer.net.

Traffic Operations Center executive director Angelito Vergel de Dios said closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras footage from last month showed the enforcers receiving bribes in separate incidents along Commonweath Avenue in Quezon City. The traffic enforcers allegedly allowed the PUV drivers to overstay on roads in order to pick up more passengers in exchange.

MMDA Chair Oscar Inocentes ordered the 90-day preventive suspension of Central Traffic Enforcement Division traffic enforcers Abelardo Gallano, Sonny Aquino, and Alejandro Macaraeg while the agency initiates summary dismissal proceedings and prepares to file formal charges against them.

“There is prima facie evidence against these enforcers. I have instructed the head of our personnel department to place them on a 90-day preventive suspension which is in accordance with the Civil Service Law, pending the filing of formal charges against them,” said Inocentes.

Director de Dios said he and other MMDA officials found that the the video footage alone was substantial evidence against the employees.

“These men clearly violated the code of conduct for traffic enforcers and acted contrary to the MMDA traffic management policy. They should therefore be punished accordingly,” de Dios said.

The enforcers were given five days to address the charges against them in writing.

Reports did not indicate if the traffic agency will also file charges against the drivers of the PUV vehicles. Inocentes previously warned that bribing MMDA traffic enforcers would result in a jail term.

Inocentes said the MMDA has been cleansing the agency of “scalawags and misfits” for the past few months and the summoning and penalizing of erring traffic enforcers caught on CCTV cameras installed on major thoroughfares was part of it.

MMDA first announced that they will field-test wireless surveillance cameras along major thoroughfares January of last year to catch traffic violators.

The agency also installed CCTV cameras at bus loading and unloading bays on EDSA and 50 tactical points in thoroughfares in the Metro, but a PUV driver said they just employ diversionary tactics to avoid being caught by enforcers.

Former MMDA Chair Bayani Fernando said November of last year that agency personnel will be monitored by CCTV cameras and an additional 100 cameras would be installed.