MMDA sees safer roads as bus drivers get fixed pay

With the implementation of fixed salaries for bus drivers starting next month, the lead civilian agency that enforces traffic regulations in Metro Manila expects its job to get much easier.

“This will significantly reduce the reckless and risk-taking behavior of (bus) drivers due to lack of income security,” said Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chair Francis Tolentino.

The MMDA chief thanked the Department of Labor and Employment for supporting the measure.

Earlier this year, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz issued Department Order 118-12, which called on bus operators to fix regular salaries for drivers instead of basing their pay on the so-called boundary system.

The call to regularize salaries and benefits for bus drivers came after the death last year of University of the Philippines professor Lourdes Estella Simbulan, who was killed when a bus hit the taxi she was riding on Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City. Nathaniel R. Melican