They have been tapped to help identify and address issues in the existing system.
On Wednesday, May 21, Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon held a consultative meeting with a group of road safety advocates at the office of the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
The move comes after the directive of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr to reform the “broken system” that will ultimately benefit everyone using the roads in the country.
“The President’s message is that we have to change this, and he gave his green light to go all-out to reform the broken system. The first step is really to acknowledge that the system is not working,” said Dizon.
Among the road safety issues that need to be addressed are the non-appearance of individuals during driver’s license medical check-ups, application examination, emission and roadworthiness tests.
Also on the agenda are the mandatory drug testing for PUV drivers; comprehensive practical driving tests, and the inconsistent and poor instructional practices in theoretical driving courses.
Other issues also include license conversion and renewal loopholes, inadequate coverage or fraud in insurance policies, lenient traffic violation penalties, and ineffective traffic enforcement.
The DOTr is also set to advance the adoption of the Philippine Road Safety Action Plan 2023-2028 through its five-pronged strategy to reduce road crash fatalities and injuries.
These movements come in light of the spate of major fatal road crashes at the start of this month, which are the multi-vehicular accident at the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) on May 1 that was later followed by another at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 on May 4.