MMDA uses CCTV, text hotline vs wangwang

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems and a new text messaging hotline are the newest weapons in the new government’s war against wangwang (sirens and blinkers). The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said Saturday it will use its CCTV to catch motorists using the gadgets, as well as those involved in counter-flow incidents. “Sa CCTV makikita natin ang plate number, we will look for their addresses. We will show evidence nag-counter-flow sila o gumagamit ng sirena (With the CCTV, we can see the plate numbers of the vehicles of violators and track the owners to their homes. We can show them video evidence of their use of wangwang or of going against the flow of traffic)," MMDA general manager Roberto Nacianceno said in an interview on dzRH radio. For its part, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) urged motorists and commuters who see vehicles with wang-wang to report the abuse through text message. A report on dzXL radio Saturday said the LTO launched the program days after President Benigno Simeon Aquino III spoke out against the use of the gadgets. LTO chairman Alberto Suansing said motorists and commuters can send their reports to 2600, but must included the plate number of the offender. The report said the LTO plans to seize the sirens and blinkers, as well as confiscate the driver’s license and the license plate. In his inaugural speech last June 30, Aquino had spoken out against the wang-wang, which he said has become a symbol of inequality. Aquino had also shunned the use of the gadget in his first working week, getting late to a function of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Friday as a result. Strengthening PD 96 Meanwhile, MMDA Traffic Operations Center director Angelito Vergel de Dios has recommended that Presidential Decree 96, the law prohibiting the use of illegal sirens and blinkers, be amended to allow vehicles of law-enforcement groups and other service agencies doing emergency response functions to use the gadgets. He defended the MMDA’s use of blinkers and sirens on its official duty vehicles, saying the agency is a law enforcement unit. “That law is old. It was passed when the MMDA was still not created. Official MMDA vehicles can be fitted with sirens and blinkers as these are used for law enforcement and emergency response actions," he said. Under PD 96, only vehicles used by the police, the National Bureau of Investigation, firemen, ambulances and vehicles used by the Land Transportation Office are allowed to use sirens and blinkers. He also said MMDA traffic enforcers are considered law enforcers and have authority to flag down any vehicle using an illegal siren or blinker, and then confiscate the illegal devices. — LBG, GMANews.TV