BAGUIO CITY, March 6 (PNA) —The Traffic Management Group (TMG) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) based here has started to adopt measures to ensure the safety requirements of motorists traveling along the four highways to this city in connection to the Summer Vacation 2014 (SUMVAC) multi-sectoral project.
”SUMVAC” for the last 30 years is a yearly tourism-oriented program whereby an average of 300,000 visitors to this mountain resort 250 kilometers north of Manila are assisted while they travel from various areas of the country, mostly from Metro Manila.
Police Senior Superintendent Edwin Rey Butacan, TMG Cordillera chief said various teams were already deployed along Marcos Highway, Kennon Road, Quirino Highway, Halsema Highway including the Benguet-Nueva Vizcaya Road to determine the assistance the motorists need.
”We do this from March 9 to May 9 every year to see to it that we can help in reminding drivers to adhere to all safety precautions to avoid any vehicular accident. The great volume of traffic usually starts during the graduation week of the Philippine Military Academy, and most vehicles arrive in the city during Holy Week,” Butacan observed.
The PMA graduation is scheduled on March 16, with President Benigno Aquino III , the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), as the guest of honor and speaker.
Butacan observed that since January, there are now more vehicular accidents that happened in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) compared to the same period last year.
The worst so far was the mishap involving a passenger bus which plunged into a ravine in Talubin, Bontoc, Mountain Province last February 7 where 14 persons were killed.
According to Butacan, 70 percent of all the mishaps during the period was due to human error while the rest were attributed to mechanical failures of vehicles and difficult terrain aggravated by road defects and unfavorable weather.
Meanwhile, he confirmed that the TMG is working on the perceived rise of carnapping of motorcylces in the area.
”It is only at this period that carnapping cases rose. However, the object of interest of the suspects is on motorcycles,” he said. (PNA)