Tulfo to LTO, MMDA: Stop ‘incentives’ for traffic tickets

Sen. Raffy Tulfo —Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Raffy Tulfo on Tuesday called on the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to stop providing traffic enforcers with incentives out of the money collected from traffic fines and penalties, saying it has become a source of corruption.

“We should stop this practice of giving quota or commissions to our traffic enforcers for every ticket issued because it opens doors for corruption, extortion,” he said during the hearing of the Senate committee on public services on his proposed Senate Bill No. 1976 or the Fair Traffic Apprehension Act.

READ: LTO launches hotline for online scams, traffic violations

The proposed measure seeks to impose administrative sanctions on traffic enforcers who commit errors in apprehending motorists and prevent them from abusing their authority.

It also seeks to compensate drivers of motor vehicles wrongly apprehended for traffic violations and increase transparency and accountability in the country’s traffic enforcement system.

Tulfo also urged the authorities, including the Philippine National Police, to refrain from deputizing high-ranking police officials with traffic citation tickets.

During the hearing, 1-Rider party list Rep. Bonifacio Bosita, a former policeman, cited Las Piñas as one of the local government units (LGUs) that deputize senior police officials and grant commissions for issued traffic violation tickets.

“In Las Piñas, a [police] major is deputized and the one who issues a ticket is a patrolman,” said Bosita, adding that the LGU also grants 20-percent incentives to police officers.

Enforcers’ qualifications

This prompted Tulfo to confront Jose Gonzales, chief of the Las Piñas Traffic Management Office, during the hearing.

“For the issued citation ticket to be legal, the [police] major has to be there on-site, he should be the one who witnessed the violation and sign it as well as explain it to the traffic violator. Otherwise, that’s invalid. I would have easily won if I were to contest that,” Tulfo said as he urged Gonzales to recall all citation tickets.

LTO Executive Director Greg Pua Jr. also admitted in the hearing that their office had deputized even high-ranking officers as long as they received proper training and attended the required seminars.

Tulfo said there must be a “ceiling” for the qualifications of those the LTO would deputize.

“There should be qualifications, ‘Colonel you’re overqualified.’ Patrolmen should be the ones deputized by the LTO since they’re the ones on the field,” Tulfo said.

“Will you stop the practice of deputizing high-level officials of the PNP because [the system] is being used to extort money from the motorists,” he added.

Pua said that they would look into Tulfo’s suggestion.

Police Col. Joshua Alejandro from the PNP’s directorate for operations said: “We will advise local police officers to refrain from getting tickets, especially senior officers, from the LGUs.”

Alejandro said he agreed with Bosita that policemen were “zealous” in apprehending violators because LGUs provide incentives from fines and penalties.

Bosita also said he was able to speak with an LTO district officer who was apparently reprimanded due to “low revenue” from traffic apprehensions.

The LTO, Pua said, has no “quota systems” and that the fines and penalties from traffic violations directly go to the government. But he said the agency would look into Bosita’s claim.