MANILA - The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) could soon be tapping private agencies, volunteers, and army reserves to beef up its traffic enforcement in Metro Manila's major thoroughfares.

MMDA general manager and acting chairman Tim Orbos said Wednesday he is studying the possibility of outsourcing part of the agency's on-ground traffic management as a means to augment its stretched-out force and also as way to combat corruption in its ranks.

"Pagka talagang hindi nila tuparin ang kanilang gawain, sinabi ko na sa kanila, I will privatize, outsource traffic enforcement. And I will just leave the good ones to the agency," said Orbos.

"Good ones should be rewarded, bad ones should go. I'm not beholden to them," he added.

Orbos admitted that recurring problems in unclogging traffic were caused in part by MMDA's inability to maintain presence in many areas in the metro, especially after clearing operations have been conducted.

"Limitado tayo sa tao at resources, that's why hindi natin kayang bantayan sabay-sabay ito. Ang mensahe namin sa mga gumagawa ng iligal na bagay, hindi porke't hindi kami nakakabalik nang regular hindi kayo dapat matakot samin kasi bibiglain at bibiglain namin kayo babalik kami at babalik sa inyo hanggat hindi kayo tumigil," he said.

Only 2,300 enforcers are currently employed by the MMDA. Orbos said they need around 13,000 people to completely police traffic on all roads of Metro Manila.

But at least 5,000 enforcers will be enough to effectively do the job, Orbos added.

Outsourcing the remaining 2,700 could be the fastest way of adding more people since waiting for additional government budget could take time, Orbos said.

He said this had been tried in other countries but did not mention if they were effective. He said private agencies already provided the uniforms and equipment of the enforcers.