MMDA to do its best to live up to ‘Edsa challenge’

With the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) back in charge of directing traffic on Edsa, officer in charge and general manager Tim Orbos said they would do their best to ensure that previous instances of traffic gridlock on the major thoroughfare would not happen again.

Apart from deploying additional traffic enforcers, Orbos said that they would use “more actively” the closed-circuit television cameras set up on the highway. Through the CCTV cameras, the agency would be able to “detect, command and enforce more effectively” traffic regulations, he added.

Last week, top MMDA officials began taking turns in manning the agency’s traffic command center in a bid to ease traffic congestion, especially in preparation for the holiday season.

“This is not to demean the role of those [people] in Metrobase but there are traffic situations which call for management decisions so that enforcers can act immediately,” he said.

Orbos allayed fears that the traffic situation may again worsen with the MMDA at the helm, saying the agency was now more “empowered, encouraged and inspired” since they were no longer alone in solving the problem with the creation of the Interagency Council on Traffic, led by the Department of Transportation.

“We will live up to the challenge,” Orbos said. “In the past, the problem was that the people had no respect for enforcers and thought that they could be bribed. Now, we are continuously weeding the agency of erring personnel and enforcers are strictly enforcing the law.”

On Monday, the Highway Patrol Group returned the authority over Edsa traffic management to the MMDA, more than a year after its designation by then President Aquino.