MANILA, Philippines - Road safety is non-negotiable.
This is according to Iloilo City Mayor Jed Mabilog during the #SaferRoadsPH forum held on Saturday, July 22 at the University of San Agustin, Iloilo City.
Home to over 1.81 million Filipinos, the province of Iloilo has recorded 4,877 road crash incidents in the first half of 2017 alone, according to the data from the Iloilo Provincial Police Office (IPPO) and Iloilo City Police Office-Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Unit (ICPO-TIEU). (READ: Long way to go for Iloilo City's speeding ordinance)
Local officials participating as panelists in the forum shared plans to ensure the safety of all road users and lessen road crashs in the province.
Iloilo City traffic handbook
To address road safety, Mabilog said that the city government has produced a traffic handbook that is given to each traffic personnel so they can be familiar with all the traffic laws.
With just over a month of strict implementation of the traffic laws, officials were able to apprehend over 8,000 violators.
Performance of the traffic auxiliaries are also heavily supervised. If they perform poorly, disciplinary actions are imposed on them.
“In this way, talagang makikita natin discipline sa kalye ngayon,” the mayor said. (In this way, we can really see the discipline in the streets now)
Intelligent Traffic System (ITS)
According to Jeck Cunlu, Iloilo City executive assistant, the ITS is also already in the process of being implemented. Once properly installed, a whole road would be a non-contact apprehension zone.
“Magiging non-contact apprehension iyan [road] so no one will apprehend you. Padadalhan ka nalang ng love letter galing city hall,” Cunlu said.
(It will be non-contact apprehension so no one will apprehend you. You’ll just be sent a love letter from the city hall.)
The speed cameras installed will also be able to capture the plate number as well as recognize the faces of the drivers.
According to Cunlu, the ITS is expected to be fully running by the 1st quarter of next year/
From LED lights to solar-powered lights
One factor that leads to road crash incidents in Iloilo is the lack of street lights. Cunlu said that the lack of lights on the road is due to numerous people digging out the cable wires and stealing the electricity.
To solve this, the city government have already started to replace all the LED lights with solar-powered lights to avoid both electricity theft and road crash incidents.
To ensure further the safety of Iloilo citizens, the city government will be launching an emergency hotline, 333-3333. According to Cunlu, this will be fully functioning hopefully by next week.
There is a also long way to go for Iloilo City's speeding ordinance. The ordinance was passed June 2, 2015, but was only implemented two years later. -Rappler.com
Kaela Malig is a Rappler Intern