MANILA, Philippines?The days of private vehicles with blinkers and sirens blaring to evade traffic jams are numbered.

Acting on orders of President Benigno Aquino III, Philippine National Police Director General Jesus Verzosa Wednesday met with chiefs of concerned PNP units and ordered intensified operations against unauthorized use of sirens and blinkers.

Verzosa also directed all PNP units to ?revitalize their operations? against mulcting policemen.

?The PNP and all its members will align and follow all the programs and policies of the new President,? Verzosa said in a statement.

In his inaugural address at the Quirino Grandstand Wednesday, Aquino explicitly spoke about his disgust over seeing vehicles violating traffic rules in Metro Manila by using ?wang wang? (sirens).

The country?s 15th president also vowed to end the existence of mulcting policemen even as he declared his intent to continue the modernization of the PNP and the Armed Forces.

After Aquino?s oath-taking, Verzosa immediately summoned the heads of the Highway Patrol Group (HPG), Police Security and Protection Group (PSPG) and the PNP?s operations units at Camp Crame national police headquarters to discuss the existing policies on the use of these gadgets.

In a news briefing at Camp Crame, PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Leonardo Espina said the PNP chief instructed HPG director Chief Supt. Orlando Mabutas to immediately write a letter to the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

Espina, who is expected to replace Mabutas as HPG chief next week, said the PNP will coordinate with the LTO being the agency mandated by law to implement policies on the use of land vehicles.

Asked if the PNP was remiss in implementing the rules on the use of sirens, he said: ?I don?t think so because we had several arrests even before.?

?Maybe we just need to revitalize our efforts,? Espina added.

Save for police cars and motorcycles being used as escorts, he said Verzosa temporarily prohibited the use of sirens and blinkers in all PNP vehicles.

?We still have to clear with the LTO if PNP cars can use sirens during police operations,? he said.

He noted that even before Aquino?s pronouncement, Verzosa had already ordered his police escorts not to use sirens in their convoy.

According to Espina, a presidential decree issued by the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos 37 years ago stipulated that only police, military and LTO vehicles were allowed to use sirens. Marlon Ramos