EO against counter-f low out today
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is expected to sign today an executive order against the counter-flowing of vehicles, which will be impounded for 30 days once caught violating his order.
“It will take effect when I sign it. In the meantime, let people be aware that this is going to happen. I’m not trying to catch people with their pants down. I don’t even want to catch anybody. I just don’t want people to be abusive,” he told reporters yesterday.
Osmeña said he received several text messages about the continuous violation of counter-flowing vehicles whose drivers might not have taken the mayor’s pronouncement seriously or maybe these motorists are not aware.
He said the public was already warned about the implementation of the new policy as this was announced more than a week ago.
Once he signs the order, it will immediately take effect.
This measure would allow traffic enforcers to impound for 30 days the vehicles caught counterflowing. Osmeña said he wants a strict implementation of the traffic rules especially those that would affect the smooth flow of traffic.
“We are going to be very strict about parking and traffic violations and we hope that if people will cooperate. We won’t need so many traffic enforcers but right now, we have to hire traffic enforcers because we have to catch people aside from managing traffic,” he said.
The mayor said the city governmentwill double its efforts in clamping illegally parked vehicles.
“This is the kind of reform that’s needed that can upset a lot of people. But if you want a better city, we have to tighten up our enforcement,” he said.
He said he usually adjudicates the fines up to 50 percent but he will not do it especially in counterflowing vehicles and illegally parked vehicles.
Further, Osmeña said the city will do measures that would allow its traffic enforcers to confiscate the driver’s licenses of erring motorists.
The confiscation of driver’s licenses is presently one of the mandates of the Land Transportation Office (LTO).
“That will be the next step. And if you have pending fines, you have to pay your pending fines aside from your existing violations,” he said, adding that he knows several people will go against this policy.
Osmeña said the Cebu City Traffic Office (CCTO) enforcers have clamped three public utility jeepneys whose drivers have pending violations ranging from P300,000 to P700,000 each.
These drivers “ignored” the hundreds of citation tickets they got from the traffic enforcers for several violations, he said.
He said he did not agree to adjudicate the fees because these erring drivers do not respect traffic laws by ignoring their violations.
“It’s not a matter of being brutal. We just don’t want them in our streets,” he said.