The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority will train and deputize barangay watchmen or “tanods” for traffic management.
The agency will also train selected barangay watchmen from 13 barangays in Quezon City on anti-littering, anti-jaywalking, and clearing of illegally parked vehicles and terminals in their communities.
MMDA officer-in-charge Tim Orbos said they will meet with the 13 barangay chairpersons and their subordinates and members of the Quezon City Department of Public Order and Safety next Tuesday at the MMDA main office in Makati City.
“The barangays, the smallest unit of government, play a vital role in keeping these secondary and tertiary roads obstruction-free. They should also be engaged and tapped to be able to maintain and continue what the agency has accomplished so we can maximize our personnel as well as other resources,” the MMDA official said in a statement.
The barangay watchmen will be issued traffic violation receipts once they are deployed to their areas of responsibility and will also help enforce the anti-littering and tricycle ban on major thoroughfares in their jurisdictions.
The training costs for the barangay watchmen will be shouldered by the agency.
Meanwhile, more than 750 truckloads of garbage were collected by the MMDA Estero Blitz personnel in three months.
Data from the Flood Control and Sewerage Management Office said 757 truckloads or 5,250 cubic meters of garbage and silt from several waterways in Metro Manila were collected from March 1 to May 6.
It has declogged Estero de Galina in Manila, Makati City, and Pasay City; Libertad retarding pond in Pasay; Estero de San Miguel, Estero de Quiapo, Estero de Magdalena, and Estero de Maypajo, all in Manila; and Lapu-Lapu spine open canal in Malabon City and Navotas City. (Rizal S. Obanil and PNA)