Traffic aide suspended for neglect of duty

A TRAFFIC enforcer of Mandaue City was meted a one-month and a day suspension without pay for apprehending a jeepney driver without valid basis.

The Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas found sufficient reason to hold Domingo Cortes guilty of simple neglect of duty.

The issue stemmed from the complaint filed by Ferry Sia against the respondent, the officer-in-charge of the Traffic Efficiency Agency of Mandaue City (Team).

Sia claimed that he was apprehended by the respondent on Nov. 29, 2009 in relation to the implementation of the 3-day rerouting scheme purportedly embodied in a resolution of the Mandaue City council.

The complainant said his franchise route was not part of the rerouting scheme in the resolution.

However, the respondent allegedly confiscated his driver’s license and issued him a Temporary Operator’s Permit (TOP).

The complainant was told that he was apperehended for “disregarding traffic officer.”

Sia , whose public jeepney ply the route Punta Engano, Lapu-Lapu-Mandaue City, explained that he didn’t violate any traffic law, ordinance, or resolution.

In his counter-affidavit, the respondent claimed that the jeepney driver wanted to pass through a road where vehicles from Lapu-Lapu were prohibited.

He said he was compelled to issue a TOP to the complainant.

The anti-graft office, however, found out that the Mandaue City resolution which the respondent used has already expired.

“For failure to ascertain the applicability of the subject resolution on rerouting, we find the respondent to have committed the administrative offense of simple neglect of duty,” said graft investigation and prosecution officer Irish Amores.

Neglect of duty is defined as the failure to give due attention especially to the performance of a task. ADOR VINCENT S. MAYOL