MANILA, July 4 – The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is continuously cleansing its ranks of unscrupulous personnel in light of the recent dismissal from service of a traffic enforcer after falsifying the signature of the driver on the traffic violation receipt (TVR) he was supposed to cancel for wrongly apprehending the motorist.
The agency’s Legal and Legislative Affairs Staff has recently ordered the dismissal from the service Traffic Aide 1 Ferdinand Marcelino for submitting the TVR bearing the bogus signature of Aldrin Arroyo to the MMDA redemption center.
Aside from undisciplined motorists and the sheer number of vehicles in the streets of Metro Manila, MMDA Chair Danila Lim said corruption should also be eradicated to ease traffic.
“We will not tolerate such wrong doings and anomalies in the agency. We should all be a partner for change, and change for the better. We will continue with our efforts in ridding of bad eggs in the agency with the help of our public,” Lim said in a statement on Tuesday.
Based on records, Marcelino flagged down Arroyo who was driving an FX taxi (PWV-466) along the EDSA-Guadalupe area for violation of the yellow lane policy on April 29, 2011 around 8:20 a.m.
The traffic enforcer then asked for Arroyo’s license and asked the driver why was he not using the taxi meter. Arroyo told Marcelino that he already applied the taxi to operate as GT Express Service which the traffic enforcer insisted was also operating out of line.
To prove his claim, Arroyo showed Marcelino a memorandum circular from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) but the traffic enforcer merely crumpled and threw it back at the driver.
At this point, Arroyo called the head of the transport group he belongs to and let him talked to Marcelino’s team leader. After a few minutes, Marcelino’s superior ordered him to let go of Arroyo and give back the documents and driver’s license.
When the driver asked about the TVR which he saw Marcelino was about to issue to him, the MMDA enforcer said he would just cancel it.
However, Arroyo was surprised when he went to MMDA later that day after he found out that Marcelino did not cancel the TVR, prompting the driver to file a complaint before the agency’s Traffic Discipline Office.
“It should be noted at this point that there is indeed a great discrepancy in the signature of Arroyo as appearing in the TVR… and in his complaint sheet signed in the same day,” said the resolution of the Falsification of Official Document case against Marcelino before the MMDA.
The MMDA head said the agency will continuously be cleansed of erring traffic personnel, who have no place in government service. (CLTC/ PNA)
