MMDA to appeal to Duterte for hazard pay

Traffic enforcers of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) monitor the vehicles passing along Edsa in this 2018 file photo. INQUIRER / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — With Congress yet to take action on a bill granting traffic constables of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) more benefits, including a hazard pay, the agency has decided to appeal directly to President Rodrigo Duterte.

“We shall write a letter to the President to revive the granting of [a] hazard pay. Let’s hope we [will] be given the chance,” MMDA chair Danilo Lim told his men over the weekend.

“I understand your plight in manning your posts and we have been pushing for the granting of your hazard pay considering the risks you encounter daily,” he said.

“Do not lose hope. We have so many plans. Expect more good things to come our way and as front-liners, you are the first who [will] benefit,” Lim added.

Traffic constable Jay Oliver Leabres said he received a hazard pay of P2,000 for several months when he was hired in 2009. The incentive, however, was scrapped the following year under a circular issued by the Department of Budget and Management.

No money for meds

“[There were] many fellow traffic enforcers who died… because they could not afford to buy medicine for the diseases [they] got [on the] job,” Leabres told the Inquirer.

The MMDA’s renewed call for a hazard pay for its traffic personnel was prompted by a recent study spearheaded by Balik Scientist Dr. Emmanuel Baja of the National Institutes of Health of the Philippine General Hospital.

Its results showed traces of black carbon and heavy metals, including lead, in the bloodstream of 158 MMDA traffic enforcers assigned on Edsa, Metro Manila’s busiest road.

According to the study, these life-threatening substances may cause a rise in  blood pressure, leading to cardiopulmonary diseases, and decreased lung function.

Lim said the MMDA was doing its part by providing medicine and insurance support, but only for regular employees. Most of its over 2,300 traffic enforcers, however, were casual and job order workers who were not entitled to benefits.

Regular traffic enforcers earn a minimum wage of P537 daily while job order personnel earn just P400 per day.

A bill filed by Quezon City Rep. Winnie Castelo mandating a hazard pay equivalent to at least 20 percent of the basic salary of MMDA traffic constables has been stuck in the committee level for three years.