“We are monitoring the flow of traffic at the most critical intersection which is the one near Microl, but we cannot monitor all intersections because we don’t have the manpower to do it,” Norita said.
The scheduled deployment of Reservists to the Middle East this month will further reduce the number of DPS personnel.
Norita said that some of the Reservists have already taken a leave of absence to be with their families.
This, he added, has affected the day to day operations of DPS, particularly the traffic, patrol and fire divisions.
According to Norita, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is not following its own schedules of power outages.
“We have the schedule of the power outages in different areas. We are prepared for the schedules of the blackouts but sometimes it is not followed,” Norita said.
Acting Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez earlier issued a directive to DPS to monitor and direct traffic at all major intersections during blackouts to ensure the safety of motorists and pedestrians.
Villagomez said that as power outages will continue on Saipan, DPS needs to implement contingency plans on the road to ensure the safety of the public.
Villagomez said that the DPS should not wait for accidents to happen before providing traffic assistance during power outages.
