Road Race Ordinance

The proposed Road Race Ordinance of Cebu City Councilor Edgardo Labella is a welcome development.

Although I still have to read the details of the proposal, I am with the many who believe that the holding of road races should be regulated for the good of everyone.

One of the easiest ways to regulate is to impose higher fees, which the proposed ordinance intends to do. 

Part of the fees that are collected from road race organizers at present is P400 for garbage disposal. The proposal of Councilor Labella, if approved, will increase the current fees by about a hundred percent and some people want to know where the money would be going.

I believe that the P400 that is being paid for garbage disposal is a very small amount considering the trash that some races seem to leave on the road. There is still much to be desired with the general attitude of Filipinos with regards to throwing our trash in the proper receptacles and not just anywhere.

The increase in permit fees might mean a little additional income for the city, but if the city really wants to earn money, the easiest way to do so is deploy personnel, who would apprehend those who throw their trash just anywhere during races.

How much is the fine for littering? It is something like P500 per violation, so if the city will do this strictly it can probably collect a lot of money during the first several months while people are getting used to really doing it right.

Before the race organizers and the runners, who don’t bother to dispose of trash properly, would start flooding me with hate mail and text, what I am really getting at is the importance of implementing our laws.

No matter how good an ordinance looks on paper, it will never be good enough if the authorities would not bother to put the law into action.

Take for example the city’s Anti-Scalping Ordinance. I’ve been to various sporting events and concerts where I see scalpers on the streets and even inside the hotel lobbies.

I support the move of Councilor Labella to regulate road races, but I’d like to see such ordinance properly implemented not only for a few years, but for all the years to come.

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I was at the University of the Philippines Cebu High School yesterday and was told that we already have over 500 runners registered for this Sunday’s Run UP High.

Only the first 1,000 registrants will get singlets, so if you are still deciding, better make that decision now as there are many runners from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police that are scheduled to list up.

There is also going to be a photo contest for the shutter bugs where the registration fee is P100 that already entitles you to five entries.

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MILESTONES: Belated birthday greetings to April GN Abatayo, who turned a year older yesterday.

Today’s greetings go to UP High alumna Chona Carreon-Carbonell.

Advance birthday greetings to those celebrating on Friday like Dino Faelnar, Josephine Po-Almerol, Leo Estal, and Nene Salamat.

More power to all of you!