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CEBU CITY, Philippines - The Cebu City traffic management board will try to tap the P1.5 million fund allocated by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for traffic management to pay for the overtime of some 80 traffic enforcers deployed in barangays Banilad and Talamban areas.
Arnel Tancinco, executive director of City Traffic Operations Management (Citom), was authorized by the Citom board yesterday to negotiate with the DPWH on the P1.5 million fund.
The DPWH has allotted P1.5 million for traffic management to the contractor of the Banilad flyover project, WTG Construction.
Tancinco said yesterday he wrote DPWH legal officer Agustinito Hermoso about Citom's request to be allowed to charge WTG Construction for the overtime pay of the 80 traffic enforcers.
Tancinco said that if the DPWH will approve the request, Citom will share the fund to pay also the overtime of traffic enforcers assigned in Mandaue City.
“We will ask WTG construction to shoulder the overtime pay instead of having the city government of Cebu allocate fund for that. We heard in the past that the same contractor also shouldered the overtime pay of Citom when the fly-over near Pag-ibig (building) was constructed. We hope it will also be the same in this case,” he said.
Citom needs at least P1 million to pay for the overtime of the 80 traffic personnel deployed along the Banilad flyover construction area.
He said he based his computation on the Civil Service Code where a government employee is only allowed to render 40 hours of overtime work in a month.
Councilor Sylvan "Jack" Jakosalem said it is only appropriate for WTG Construction to shoulder the overtime pay of Citom personnel since the government paid the private contractor for it.
He said the city government should not spend a dime for a national government project even if the city has committed to assist in the project's implementation
Hermoso earlier told Cebu Daily News that part of the contract cost of WTG Construction is the allocation of P1.5 million for traffic management and another P200,000 for the installation of traffic signs and billboards.
The contractor will be held liable if he fails to put in place a traffic scheme to facilitate the easy flow of traffic at the construction site.
Aside from shouldering the enforcers overtime pay, Citom is also asking WTG Construction to install additional billboards and traffic signs along Governor Cuenco Avenue and some parts of Mandaue City.
Jakosalem said at least 30 more traffic signs needed to be installed kilometers away from the construction site to advise the public about the heavy traffic in the flyover construction area.
Jakosalem said he expects the traffic in the area to be heavy when the construction of the flyover starts on Thursday night .
“So maybe on Friday we will close traffic along Governor Cuenco Avenue and make it a one-way lane,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes has allowed private vehicles to park along A.S. Fortuna and M.L. Quezon streets.
Cortes said the traffic board, which earlier recommended to disallow parking in these streets, changed its earlier stand and recommended to allow vehicles to park along the sides of the streets.
Cortes said the traffic board did not see a need to implement the no parking policy yet along A.S. Fortuna and other major alternative routes to Talamban in Cebu City.
Cortes however said that when the need arises we will implement it.
Cortes also announced yesterday the completion of the patching of potholes in A.S. Fortuna Street and the stretch from M.C. Briones Highway to Governor Cuenco Avenue in barangay Banilad, Cebu City.
The asphalt patching, undertaken both by the DPWH and the Mandaue City government, aimed to speed up vehicle traffic attributing to much better condition of the road. /Correspondent Jolene R. Bulambot with Reporter Dale G. Israel
