Villanueva Calls for Telecommuting to Solve Cebu Traffic

The traffic in Cebu has become so bad that Senator Joel Villanueva is calling for the Regional Office-7 of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to ramp up the awareness of Republic Act No. 11165, or the Telecommuting Law, and encourage the private sector "to develop and implement telecommuting work arrangements with their employees."

Villanueva made the call after Cebu's Sangguniang Panlalawigan declared a 'traffic crisis' in the province.

"While it may not be the magic pill that will resolve the traffic situation, we believe that the impact of the law will help reduce the need of workers to travel to their places of work, thereby easing the demand in public transport in the short term," Villanueva said. 

"Telecommuting allows workers to maintain their productivity with the lesser time they allot to travel from one place to another," the solon added. "The law's implementing rules and regulations mandate that the DOLE undertake a study to identify jobs which can be fulfilled under a telecommuting work arrangement. The study will help guide employers as they consider implementing their own telecommuting policies in their office."

According to Villanueva, in a study conducted by the Japan International Coordination Agency (JICA), Cebu lost an estimated PHP1.1 billion a day in 2018 due to traffic.

"For those companies that have existing telecommuting policies, we urge them to notify the DOLE Regional Office which has jurisdiction to ensure that these are compliant with existing labor laws and regulations," he concluded.