• CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
The Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod recently approved on first reading the Street Naming and Traffic Signage Ordinance.
The ordinance authored by Councilor Renecito Novero said the City Government of Bacolod acknowledges that it is the basic right of every individual to travel and to travel safely.
Accordingly, the City Government of Bacolod considers it a noble task to provide safe and convenient utilization of city streets and main thoroughfares in the City of Bacolod by pedestrians and commuters whether they be permanent residents, transient travelers, or visiting tourists, it said.
The ordinance provides for the creation of a Street Naming and Traffic Signages Task Force to be briefly known, for purposes of this ordinance, as the Planning and Implementing Force (PIF), it said.
The PIF will be composed of the head of the Bacolod Traffic Authority Office as chairperson, the City Engineer as vice-chairperson; with members composed of the chairperson of the SP Committee on Traffic and Transportation, chair of the SP Committee on Human Rights, Association of Barangay Councils head, City Budget Officer, City Treasurer, City Accountant, City Legal Officer, City Planning and Development Officer, five barangay captains coming from the urban center of Bacolod City, and three barangay captains coming from the rural barangays per recommendation of the head of the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) which recommendation will be concurred in by at least majority of the entire number of the PIF who are not barangay captains, it added.
The ordinance provides for the appropriation of an initial sum of P5 million to be allocated from the general fund or any other fund available for the purpose which will be strictly utilized for providing the street names and traffic signages designed appropriately and put up visibly on the main streets and thoroughfares of the City of Bacolod starting from its urban centers to the rural barangays.*
