MMDA: Over 300 accidents recorded daily in MM

MANILA, Philippines— The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has recorded  at least  300 daily  accidents   in the  metropolis alone, its chairman, Danilo Lim, told a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

“Ang average accidents  natin ay mahigit 300  daily. More than 300 accidents  daily,”  Lim said  during the hearing  of the Senate  committee on public services.’’

(Our average number of accidents daily is around 300.)

“And unfortunately kung minsan,  pati yung mga traffic enforcers namin nagiging biktima ng aksidente,”  he said.

(And unfortunately  sometimes, even  our traffic enforcers  become victims of accidents.)

Just last year,   Lim said   a female traffic  enforcer was ran over  and killed  by an armoured vehicle.

“So talagang ang MMDA,  all out talaga kami sa support sa panukalang batas na it [The  MMDA is really all out  in supporting this bill],”   the official   said, referring  to several bills seeking  to declare every  3rd Sunday of November as the “National Day of Remembrance for Road Crash Victims, Survivors, and their Families.”

“It’s about time na dapat siguro i-institutionalize  na natin ito [that maybe, we need to institutionalize this],” he added.

The  proposed  measure was the subject of the hearing conducted by the committee chaired by Senator Grace Poe.

Lim said  the number  of  accidents recorded by  MMDA was higher than the estimated number  earlier  mentioned by Poe at the start of the hearing.

“By our estimate, around 13 accidents occur every hour in Metro Manila, with each costing between P420,000 to P3.47 million. But even these numbers cannot tell the full cost of losing a lot more,” the senator said in her opening  statement.

If enacted  into law,  road crash victims, survivors, and their families will be commemorated every  third  Sunday of November “through religious mass services, designation of public spaces as memorials, blood donation campaigns, and other means.”

“Some may say that this bill is a band-aid solution for a problem of epidemic proportions. To these comments, the Committee responds that the substantive solutions to road accidents in the country are already contained in the proposed National Transportation Safety Board, which this representation already sponsored a few days ago, and in fact may be interpellated on this afternoon,”  Poe said.

“Second, we must not forget that remembrance is a precursor of justice. Remembering road crash victims, survivors, and their families will not only prevent them from becoming just another statistic. It will also preserve the call to justice for future generations. It will insulate their tragedy from political amnesia,” Poe added. /jpv