Road safety advocates unanimously called on the Supreme Court to immediately tackle issues on the temporary restraining order imposed on the no-contact policy and start its oral arguments earlier than January next year or face the anger of those motorists stuck in "carmageddon" as face-to-face classes and the Christmas season has already started.
Former Kabataan Party-list Representative Terry Ridon — now the head of the InfraWatch advocacy group — said that the fine tuning of NCAP issues should begin as soon as possible.
He added that the SC should also lift the imposed TRO on the policy.
"The SC should lift the TRO given that face-to-face classes and the Christmas Season have begun. This is the time when heavy traffic is killing motorists. If the magistrates want to really resolve the issue, then they should start discussing it and not next year. Time will come, irate motorists will put the blame of the heavy traffic on the SC for suspending the NCAP," Ridon said.
The former lawmaker maintained that the measure was proven to lessen corruption and the avoidance of "kotong cops," adding that it has made the traffic situation improve following the recorded drop of traffic violations by 60 percent, according to the local government units.
"We will stick to our calls to continue NCAP as it dismantled the ground-level corruption in major roads involving erring law enforcers. The scheme also changed the bad behavior of our motorists which is a huge development. NCAP has somehow become an equalizer as all walks of life can be fined and sanctioned when beating traffic regulations," Ridon said.
With Pat Santos
