Dumaguete City’s “Discipline Zone” has attracted a disciple.
The municipality of Sibulan will create its own discipline zone to ease and decongest traffic along the national highway going to the airport, at the flea market in Boloc-boloc, and at the routes going to the Roman Catholic church every 13th day of the month.
Sibulan Senior Administrative Assistant Iris Indira Requiron-Puspus disclosed Thursday that Mayor Jose Abiera wanted to designate the national highway from the boundary of Dumaguete up to the boundary of San Jose as a discipline zone, learning from the gains achieved by Dumaguete in just two to three months of implementation.
According to Requiron, meetings had been conducted with the Highway Patrol Group headed by Sr. Insp. Robelito Mariano, representatives from the Department of Public Works & Highways, the Land Transportation Office, the Traffic Management Office of Sibulan, and the local police headed by Sr. Insp. Nelson Lamoco.
One of the concerns of Sibulan, however, is manpower, with the suggestion to utilize existing barangay tanods as force multipliers in the barangays where the national highway traverses.
As an initial move, Mayor Abiera has tasked the traffic committee of Councilors Roy Calingacion and Eddie Gravador to initiate amendments of the existing traffic ordinance of Sibulan for it to be realistic with the present times in terms of fines and penalties and to include the passage of a jaywalking ordinance so that the implementation will be encompassing to include all other violations such as smoking in public places.
Meanwhile, a dry run had been conducted for one week at the flea market, which is located along the national highway in Boloc-boloc, against parking along the highway and the sidewalks, and it was found out that traffic congestion was addressed especially during rush hours.
The office of the municipal mayor also saw the need to upgrade the operation of the traffic management office in preparation for the implementation of the discipline zone.
For his part, Sibulan Police Chief Lamoco is supportive of the desire of the Mayor to put order along the national highway with few concerns on the lack of personnel.
According to Lamoco, recent directives from the police regional office is for them to use 50 percent of their efforts in the campaign against illegal drugs and that he has several wharfs to monitor, plus the Dumaguete-Sibulan airport.
However, the proposal to utilize barangay tanods and to provide for additional personnel is a welcome development, Lamoco pointed out, to sustain the program.
He noticed that even during regular days, Sibulan has a lot of passenger traffic with daily trips of fastcrafts and pumpboats to and from Sibulan, much more during the 13th of every month for pilgrims coming to the St. Anthony of Padua Church in that town. (Juancho Gallarde/PNA)
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