CAMP DANGWA, La Trinidad, Benguet -- A few
days after he assumed office on Sept 22, 2015, the attention of Chief Supt.
Ulysses Justiniani Abellera to the traffic problem in Baguio was called by no
less than Philippine National Police Chief Ricardo Marquez.
Apparently,
a “concerned citizen” presently stuck in a traffic jam somewhere in the city
informed Marquez of the actual traffic situation via text messaging, who in
turn forwarded the information to Abellera.
As reported,
traffic snarls in Baguio delayed travel time of residents in the city and the
neighboring towns of Benguet during rush hours. This situation has been blamed
on traffic experiments that caused the closure of road intersections and
rerouting of previous directions.
When asked
about his plans with a deteriorating traffic situation, Abellera, the newly appointed Philippine
National Police Regional Director for Cordillera said, “…there has to be a
traffic summit involving all stakeholders to include public transport drivers
and operators, private motorists, school representatives, public officials,
police and the media.”
Abellera
said the traffic issue in Baguio has become a complicated problem and is not
easy to solve, “but we’ll try our best to make significant improvement of the
situation.” He said further that sometimes even his wife blamed the traffic
cops for the long line of immobile motor vehicles.
However,
Abellera maintained that aside from the usual reasons, other matters have to be
considered such as the increasing volume of motor vehicles running on any road
and a traffic design that has to be studied by traffic engineers.
On peace and
order, the newly appointed Police Regional Office-Cordillera director talked
about OPLAN Lambat-Sibat, the latest anti-crime approach that will be applied
exclusively to fight criminality especially in crime-prone urban centers.
As a
sustainable method employed in checking crime incident reports and pinpointing
crime hotspots in order that the police is able to provide the most appropriate
action; Abellera said, OPLAN Lambat-Sibat will be launched in all regions in
the country.
On jueteng
and illegal gambling, Abellera said the “no take” policy among all police units
is still the prevailing rule. He did not elaborate as to what actions could be
applied against jueteng and gambling operators in the Cordillera whose illegal
businesses thrived since authorities stopped raiding them.
Abellera is
a lawyer and member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines since 2002, a
consistent honor pupil of Magsaysay Elementary School and the valedictorian at
Don Bosco High School in Baguio City.
He has been
a member of the police organization since graduating from the Philippine
Military Academy Class ’84, and rose through the ranks by serving in many
capacities as head of various police offices in the country, reaping awards and
citations as he went up the organizational ladder.
Supt.
Abellera who was born in Gen. Santos City spent childhood in New Lucban
Barangay, Baguio City and Asin, Nangalisan, Tuba, Benguet. – March L. Fianza
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