MMDA mulls review of applicant screening

A review of the current screening procedures for traffic enforcers could be in the works as a result of the poor percentage of applicants making the grade.

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Executive Director for Traffic Angelito Vergel de Dios said that he is thinking of reviewing the tests to determine whether their screening was too rigid, considering that the job is simply traffic enforcement.

Out of almost a thousand applicants for traffic enforcers at the MMDA, less than 200 were able to pass.

The physical screening itself already weeds out a significant number of applicants as they failed to meet the height requirement set by MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando.

For the male enforcers, the minimum height requirement is five feet and four inches while the female applicants must be at least five feet and two inches.

The applicants who manage to hurdle the height requirement are then subjected to a written examination and this is where majority of them fail.

De Dios noted that some of the applicants were academically proficient but somehow still flunked the tests for traffic enforcers.

Although the idea of the entire program is to change the image of the traffic enforcers from their present low stature which is tainted by corruption to one that is respectable both physically and mentally. De Dios said that he will review the tests to see if they might have been too strict in terms of requirements.

For several years, a significant number of MMDA traffic enforcers were composed of elderly citizens carried over from the Marcos era from a pool of street sweepers.

Many of these enforcers have since retired or returned to their mother units at the MMDA.

Under the present administration, around 309 traffic enforcers were dismissed for various violations, including corruption.

This depleted the traffic enforcement unit of the MMDA and paved the way for the massive hiring of new breed of enforcers.

With the more stringent requirements, the MMDA also offered higher incentives for qualified applicants.

The basic pay for an enforcer is pegged at around P9,600 a month, plus a 15 percent share of the total traffic violation receipts they have issued.

MMDA General Manager Robert Nacianceno previously noted that an enforcer could earn as much as P20,000 a month on top of the basic pay from the share of the citation ticket revenue. – Marvin Sy