Like exes reuniting: Iloilo City eyes TTMO, POSMO merger

By Aiya Cantomayor and Estrella Urquiola

Iloilo City’s traffic and public order offices may be reunited under a single agency two years after the City Council split them, following the creation of an ad hoc committee to study the proposal.

The council approved a resolution on Wednesday, July 15, creating the panel tasked with studying the proposed ordinance, deliberating on it and holding public hearings.

The measure would merge the Traffic and Transportation Management Office (TTMO) and the Public Order and Safety Management Office (POSMO), separated in 2024 to let each focus on its own mandate.

Councilor Sedfrey Cabaluna, chair of the Committee on Transportation, will lead the three-person committee.

Councilor Jose Maria “Nene” Dela Llana will serve as vice chair, with Councilor Alan Zaldivar as member.

Councilor Rex Marcus Sarabia, chair of the Blue Ribbon Committee, inhibited himself from the panel because he authored the 2024 ordinance that separated the two offices.

Cabaluna said the committee’s role is not to approve the merger outright but to determine whether sufficient justification exists to reverse the council’s earlier decision.

“We understood before why they needed to be separated, so those pushing for the merger carry the burden of proving why we should now approve putting them back together,” Cabaluna said.

“Our start is the discussion on the merger — not the merger itself. We were tasked to study the proposed ordinance,” he said.

Cabaluna said he backed the earlier separation because each office carries broad responsibilities that require dedicated leadership and oversight.

TTMO is primarily responsible for traffic management, while POSMO handles public safety functions, including the enforcement of rules on road obstructions and encroachments.

The two offices’ duties occasionally overlap, Cabaluna said, but each performs critical functions that demand full attention.

“While their responsibilities sometimes intersect, there should still be one office concentrating on traffic management while another addresses other public safety concerns, including road obstructions and encroachments, which are now under POSMO. These are very important roles they have to perform,” he said.

Proponents of the merger — including the Office of the City Mayor and the heads of TTMO and POSMO — must show that the reasons for the separation no longer apply, he said.

Cabaluna acknowledged that personnel changes may have prompted the proposal but said the mayor already has the power to appoint different officials to head the two offices without merging them.

“The mayor has the flexibility to assign different people to TTMO and POSMO. If she wants both offices to have separate heads, she can do that. So we want to see exactly how the merger will benefit the city,” he said.

The committee will also examine whether the merger would affect the offices’ operational capacity, efficiency, organizational structure and budget.

Mayor Raisa Treñas-Chu has said the merger would help regularize traffic enforcers, many of whom have worked for the city for years under job-order contracts.

Under Philippine civil service rules, job-order workers are not considered government employees and are generally ineligible for regular “plantilla” positions unless appointed to authorized permanent posts.

Job-order personnel are hired on short-term contracts, hold no security of tenure and are excluded from government benefits such as leave credits and retirement pay.

Cabaluna said he supports granting permanent positions to qualified traffic enforcers but questioned whether merging the offices is necessary to achieve that.