MMDA tells school: Stop giving ‘allowance’ to traffic aides

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) wants the La Salle Green Hills (LSGH) to stop its practice of providing a P50 daily meal allowance as a “token of appreciation” to its enforcers for managing traffic flow around the school.

Bong Nebrija, the MMDA operations supervisor, said he learned only on Tuesday that the enforcers assigned within the area of LSGH had been receiving meal allowance from the parents-teachers association (PTA) of LSGH for the last three years.

These MMDA enforcers were made to sign an “attendance sheet” with the LSGH guard and that the allowance was given to them in lump sum at the end of every month, he said.

According to Nebrija, at least eight MMDA enforcers are regularly stationed near the school, which means around P8,000 is given to them every month.

“(We’re) not comfortable with it and we want it stopped. [We’re] walking on a thin line here. While it’s a simple token of appreciation, we don’t want our enforcers who manage traffic in the area to get used to it,” Nebrija told reporters on Wednesday.

Nebrija learned of the meal allowance during a meeting with traffic personnel on Tuesday. The meeting was called to determine the reasons why Ortigas Avenue, near LSGH, remained a problem area.

He said that based on what he heard the “voluntary” practice actually started about a decade ago, when initially the enforcers were given hot meals. But later, because some food packs were often not claimed and ended up spoiled, cash was given instead.

The practice may have affected the MMDA’s “moral ascendancy to apprehend” erring motorists who made the LSGH area a perennial choke point, the official said, taking particular note of drivers who take

too long to drop off or pick up students.

Nebrija said his office would make a formal report about the matter to MMDA chair Danilo Lim.

But he clarified that the agency would not be filing a case against the school since the meal allowance was given “in good faith.”

But Nebrija said “it’s disappointing to learn why this was allowed to happen.”

In a statement reported on GMA News, LSGH president Victor Franco said the meal allowance was just the school’s token of appreciation given to the enforcers “for helping manage and ease the traffic situation around the school.”

“We know that the MMDA enforcers are just doing their job. They are helping to enforce traffic regulations, and this is our way of saying ‘thank you’ for their efforts,” Franco said.

The school official stressed that “no favors” were asked in exchange of the allowance. –Jovic Yee , JPV