PNP chief Director General Ricardo Marquez. INQUIRER.net/JULLIANE LOVE DE JESUS
The Philippine National Police (PNP) received a “congratulations” from President Benigno Aquino III for doing a job “well done” in managing the perennial traffic congestion on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa) highway.
In a text message to PNP chief Director General Ricardo Marquez, Aquino asked the PNP chief to “pass on [the] “well done” to all PNP officers, particularly the PNP Highway Patrol Group (HPG) and augmentation forces from the National Capital Region Police Office, who were fielded to man six choke points or the problem areas on the busy thoroughfare.
“He told me to make sure that [his “well done”] will be disseminated and that we go from one success to another,” Marquez told reporters as he inspected the usual traffic gridlock on the intersection of Edsa Cubao and Aurora Boulevard in Quezon City on Tuesday.
However, before reaching Edsa Cubao, Marquez’s convoy got caught in heavy traffic as it traversed the southbound lane of Edsa from Balintawak area.
On the second day of the PNP men on the road, Marquez, HPG director Chief Superintendent Arnold Gunnacao and Quezon City Police District director Chief Superintendent Edgardo Tinio went to some of the choke points of Edsa on Balintawak, Cubao, Ortigas, Shaw Boulevard, Guadalupe and Taft Avenue.
READ: Mixed reviews for HPG traffic enforcers on Day 1
On the orders of Aquino, policemen started to take over the management of traffic on Edsa on Monday morning. Joining enforcers from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, some 150 PNP personnel took shifts in assisting Edsa traffic from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.
“Our intervention should be mission-driven. That’s why our commanders are on the ground to see for themselves what are the challenges because that’s the only time you could develop suitable interventions. We cannot just guess. They cannot just decide from the office,” said Marquez.
“Our commanders have to go down on the ground, check the situation and evaluate,” he said. Julliane Love de Jesus/RAM
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