Former Ilocos Sur governor Luis “Chavit” Singson has fulfilled his promise of rewarding the traffic enforcers who stopped his convoy after using the EDSA Busway last week by visiting the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Monday, April 15, to turn over the cash gift.
While the MMDA accepted the P200,000 cash, its chairman Don Artes said the money will not be distributed to the traffic enforcers who apprehended Singson as he emphasized that it is illegal under an existing law.
Instead, Artes said the P200,000 cash from Singson will go to the MMDA General Fund and will be allocated to programs and projects of the MMDA with the approval of the Metro Manila Council (MMC) which is composed of all mayors in the National Capital Region.
“We have a law that prohibits any employee of the government from accepting gifts except what they call modest gifts, small gifts that are not substantial in amount,” said Artes.
He is referring to the Republic Act 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standard for government officials and employees.
“In the case of former governor Chavit Singson, we can say that what he gave was substantial so it cannot go directly to any of our employees or any particular group in our agency,” said Artes.
“Instead, it will be considered as a donation that will go to our general fund. It will be included in the general fund and its spending is subject to the approval of the MMC,” he added.
No string attached
While Artes expressed gratitude to Singson for the donation, he emphasized that the MMDA’s acceptance of the donation does not mean that he would already be spared from being apprehended should he dare to use the EDSA Busway anew.
“Just because we accepted the gift does not mean that he can already use the EDSA Busway. There is still no exception, only vehicles allowed by the DOTr can use the EDSA Busway,” said Artes.
In fact, he said Singson himself gave an assurance that he will make sure that his vehicle will no longer use the EDSA Busway.
“He acknowledged his mistake, he came here (MMDA office) to apologize and he even appealed to all motorists to follow the traffic laws,” said Artes.
The case of other violators
Artes could not help but compare Singson to other violators on the EDSA Busway.
“We witnessed several incidents in the past few days when some of the violators would argue with our enforcers, some of them would speed off and some of them would even engage in name-dropping,” said Artes.
“All we can say is for them to follow the traffic laws, there will be no special treatment to anybody. We will just implement the law,” he added.