Assistant Secretary Albert Suansing Wednesday warned officials of the Land Transportation Office of being fired if they hesitate to confiscate unauthorized sirens and blinkers from influential politicians within their turf.

Suansing said LTO regional directors who would tolerate politicians in using sirens and blinkers, despite the new administration's "anti-wang-wang" campaign, should better resign from their posts for defying orders of the President and the letter of the law.

It was recalled that President Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III explicitly stated his opposition to the use of sirens and blinkers by elected officials during his June 30 inauguration.

Under the law, only the President, the Vice President, the Senate President, House Speaker, and Chief Justice are entitled to use these paraphernalia as perks of their offices.

Aside from these VIP vehicles, only police cars, ambulance and fire trucks are allowed to use sirens and blinkers.

President Aquino's informal directive was promptly heeded by a number of public officials and private individuals who voluntarily surrendered to authorities their sirens and blinkers, excluding some 500 sirens and blinkers that were confiscated by LTO and the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group.

LTO records show that most of the confiscated sirens and blinkers came from Region 10.

However, Suansing said reports reaching his office disclosed that a number of politicians in the regions are still using their sirens and blinkers and being tolerated by some LTO regional directors. The same reports said LTO regional officials are either harassed or bribed by the politicians.

"They better leave their posts if they cannot enforce the rule of law," Suansing said of his defiant subordinates.

Meanwhile, Mayor Tito Oreta Wednesday called on motorists to surrender sirens to the city hall or to local police to avoid bigger penalties and in support to the campaign of the new administration against the illegal use of “wang-wangs.”

Oreta's appeal came after a group of motorists in the city yielded their sirens following the order of President Aquino to the Philippine National Police (PN) and the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to intensify the campaign against unlawful use of sirens.

A group of the city's Public Safety Traffic Management Office (PSTMO) and other anti-crime units in Malabon surrendered their sirens to Mayor Oreta in the presence of Vice Mayor Len-Len Oreta, Senior Superintendent Roberto Villanueva, Malabon City Police chief, at the city hall Wednesday.

Oreta said this should serve as a wake-up call to other motorists possessing sirens.

Under City Ordinance 08-066, persons caught using illegal sirens will be fined P500 and their gadgets confiscated.

Fines for violators caught by Land Transportation Office is P1,500.

Villanueva said people should take advantage of surrendering their sirens to local authorities rather than being caught by LTO and other agencies which impose a bigger fine.

He said the motorists can surrender their gadgets to the police station or to the Traffic Enforcement Unit (TEU) headed by Chief Insp. Antonio Ablaza.

Villanueva said that a receipt will be issued to the owner before the recovered gadgets will be turned over to the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) for proper disposal.

In Caloocan, City Mayor Enrico Echiverri has ordered police to go after private motorists using sirens.