Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief, Atty. Vigor Mendoza II, has ordered all regional directors and district office heads to coordinate with their respective local government units (LGUs) for the assistance that the agency could provide during the opening of classes this week.
The order is in line with the instruction of Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista to ensure the safety of all road users, as all roads lead to various schools nationwide for the class opening.
“Your LTO, through our personnel on the ground, will assist in the smooth flow of traffic and ensure compliance of motorists on courtesy and discipline on the road,” Mendoza said. “My instruction is to coordinate with the LGUs for the traffic management and what assistance the LTO could provide to ensure the safety of the students, teachers and school personnel, and all road users.”
Mendoza said there is also a need to check on the road worthiness of motor vehicles being used for school services, in coordination with the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.
He said LTO personnel should also be on the lookout for tricycles and other motor vehicles that transport students more than their allowed capacity.
“We also have to check on motor vehicles overloaded with students because that is very risky and leads to road accidents,” Mendoza said in a statement.
LGUs and the Philippine National Police have been preparing for the class opening this week, with focus on traffic management and road safety measures.
While there are some schools that postponed the class opening July 29 due to the effects of super typhoon “Carina”, the majority of the schools in the country pushed through with the class opening, based on the schedule issued by the Department of Education.
In Western Visayas, some 1.4 million learners, from basic elementary education to senior high school, started the 2024-2025 academic year Monday.
Hernani Escullar Jr., DepEd6 information officer, said the number was only 70 percent of the total enrollment recorded during the previous school year at 2,012,930.
The enrollees comprised 705,602 for elementary, 468,086 for junior high school, and 235,446 for senior high school.
“The data was, as of July 26, but the encoding is still ongoing. The number already covers enrollment from public, private, state universities and colleges, and local universities and colleges,” Escullar said in an interview.
He said they have no idea why there was a drop in enrollment, but they are still encouraging parents to enlist their children since public schools continue to accept enrollees.
The transfer of residence is being considered one of the possible reasons, he said.
“Our policy is that no child will be left behind, so anyone who is supposed to be enrolled in basic education should be in school. As we speak, encoding continues,” he said in a Philippine News Agency report, adding that, probably, they will see the actual number in a month or two.
Escullar said the opening of classes went smoothly.
Brig. Gen. Jack Wanky, regional director of the Police Regional Office 6, said over 2,000 officers have been deployed to ensure the safety of learners.
“With this opening, we expect an influx of students, especially new students accompanied by their parents. We have to sustain our very effective Balik Eskwela security program,” he said.
Wanky called on students to be vigilant and never hesitate to approach assistance desks for any help. ||
