City dad wants PUV drivers to display ID

CEBU, Philippines- Following complaints from transport groups, Cebu City councilor Nestor Archival Sr. is pushing for the amendment of a decade-old ordinance that requires public utility vehicles to display their plate numbers and the driver’s name.

Drivers and operators will be required to display their identification cards from Cebu City Transportation Office, instead of a signet, on the vehicle’s dashboard, once the amended ordinance is approved.

Archival, the council’s chairperson of the committee on energy, transportation, communications, and other utilities, is particularly seeking to amend Section 3 of City Ordinance 1605 authored by former city councilor Rogelio Osmeña.

“Numerous complaints have come from the transport groups particularly the drivers of the public utility vehicles such as taxi, PUJ’s, plying the routes within Cebu City regarding the vagueness of the provision under Section 3… especially on what identification card should be displayed inside the vehicle they operated,” said Archival.

Under Section 3 of the original ordinance approved on January 15, 1996, “no person shall be allowed to drive a public utility vehicle unless he displays his full name in a signet on the dashboard of the vehicle clearly visible to the passengers.”

“The ordinance did not specifically state that the certification placed on the dashboard should be CCTO-issued ID, thus, (this proposal will assist drivers) since it has created confusion to them particularly on the event of apprehensions,” Archival said.

“There are also questions whether or not the drivers can renew their identification card even with pending violations. In order to clear all doubts, there is a need to amend and supplant provisions addressing the concern,” the councilor added.

During last August 17’s special council session, Archival presented his proposed amendment to the ordinance that drivers will now have to display their own CCTO-issued ID’s rather than simply displaying signets.

Drivers have one year to use these CCTO-issued ID’s before it expires.

If the driver renews his ID, Archival further cited in his proposal, he will be obliged to pay “the prescribed fees related to his past traffic violations accumulated within the period of six months prior from the date of expiration.”  (FREEMAN)