As United Nations Member States commemorate the Fifth UN Global Road Safety Week around the world, road safety leaders and partners in the Philippines re-affirmed their commitment to keep citizens safe on the road.
Over the past decade, the country has achieved progress in road safety legislation, but the high incidence of road traffic injuries and fatalities remains a major public health and development concern.
“About 12,000 Filipinos die on the road every year. How quickly we see this number drop depends on the commitment of the country's leaders,” said Dr Gundo Weiler, the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in the Philippines.
“We have seen how legislation on risk factors such as speeding, drinking and driving, use of seat-belts, motorcycle helmets and child restraints protect people. To save more lives, we need better enforcement of these laws as well as effective action from leaders on safer infrastructure, improved vehicle standards and enhanced post-crash care,” he added.
Carrying the theme “Leadership for Road Safety: Making a Difference,” the Philippine commemoration of the 5th UN Global Road Safety Week also marked the official handover of the updated Philippine Road Safety Action Plan (PRSAP) 2017-2022.
Road safety partners during the observance of the Fifth UN Global Road Safety Week. Photo: WHO/J. Hermogenes
The PRSAP maps the country's way forward in improving road safety as led by the Department of Transportation (DOTr). It highlights the need for a focused, mandated, and adequately-managed road safety unit within the DOTr; dedicated and sufficient funding from the national government; and a comprehensive but accurate road safety database for evidence-informed policies and interventions. The PRSAP has a vision of zero deaths from road crashes and interim goal of reducing road traffic deaths by 20%.
“The Congress has abolished the Road Board so the government doesn't have that yearly budget allocated for road safety,” explained Undersecretary Mark Richmund de Leon of the DOTr - Office of Road Transport and Infrastructure. “In the meantime that we don’t have that regular source of budget, we will need each and every one's support to attain that goal of 20% reduction of road traffic deaths.”
Initiatives to reduce deaths and injuries on the road
The event included a multi-stakeholder forum with nearly 100 representatives from national agencies, local government units (LGUs), academia, non-government and civil society organizations, including groups representing people with disabilities as well as pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists.
The Land Transportation Office (LTO), Philippine National Police (PNP) and the University of the Philippines (UP) National Center for Transportation Studies led a stocktaking of national initiatives to promote road safety and reduce road traffic deaths, specifically through enforcement, data management, education and social mobilization for road safety.
During the event, Director Francis Ray Almora from LTO’s Law Enforcement Service presented some of the innovations introduced by their office such as the use of body cameras, handheld device for face recognition, fingerprint scan and motor vehicle reader, as well as a motor vehicle recognition and enforcement system.
“One of the challenges is insufficient technology and equipment to conduct enforcement of land transportation laws. With these innovations, enforcement is assured of fairness and that the protocols in the apprehension are faithfully followed,” said Director Almora.
The LTO Region V also presented a road safety education initiative called Students Today, Road Users Tomorrow (STRUT) being implemented in the Bicol region, targeting the youth. The initiative started with educating elementary to college students and has since been integrated in the curriculum in Bicol, in partnership with the Department of Education.
“We all share the road, thus there is a pressing need to inculcate road safety in each and every one of us. And what better way to inculcate road safety consciousness than through education as early as during their childhood education? If we start with our youth, safety consciousness will be instilled and will become a habit,” said Director Noreen Bernadette San-Luis Lutey.
Another innovation presented was the Data for Road Incident Visualization, Evaluation and Reporting System (DRIVERS), accessible through roadsafety.gov.ph. DRIVERS is an open source web-based application that brings together various road incident data from PNP, MMDA, LGUs, among others.
“We have the 12,000 annual deaths figure, but that may be underreported,” said Police Superintendent Atty Oliver Tanseco. “If we can’t present the real picture, how do we know the result and effectiveness of our interventions? We need data and results and this will be addressed by the DRIVERS.”
Local government leaders are also seeing how their initiatives are making a difference in the road safety of their constituency. During a panel discussion led by the Metro Manila Center for Health Development, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and LGUs from Paranaque, Quezon City, Makati shared their good practices improving post-crash response and engineering interventions.
The Philippine commemoration of the 5th UN Global Road Safety Week was co-organized by WHO, DOTr, DOH, UN, UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies, Safe Kids Worldwide Philippines and the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety – Legal Development Programme (BIGRS-LDP).
World Health Organization (WHO)'s work in road safety in the Philippines
Working with 194 Member States across six regions, WHO is the United Nations agency responsible for public health. In the Philippines, WHO supports the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety – Legal Development Programme (BIGRS-LDP) in its initiatives towards the significant reduction of road traffic fatalities and injuries.
Related links:
Fifth UN Global Road Safety Week
Global status report on road safety 2018
WHO fact sheet on road traffic injuries