Los Baños bans loitering from midnight to 4 a.m.

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, Philippines  – Loitering in this university town, hounded by a rash of crimes in the past few months, is now prohibited from midnight to 4 a.m.

This is stated in an ordinance recently passed by the municipal council presided over by Vice Mayor Josephine Sumangil-Evangelista.

Authored by Councilor Lourdes Principe, Ordinance No. 2012-1120 has been approved by Mayor Anthony Genuino.

Under the ordinance, “loiter” means “to linger or hang around in a public place or business where one has no particular or legal purpose.”

First-time offenders will be taken to the barangay hall where their personal information (name, age, address, occupation, and other details) will be recorded and they will be informed of the ordinance.

Second-time offenders will be held at the police station for custody from midnight to 4 a.m. They will also be required to do community service for four hours in the barangay where they were accosted.

On third offense, violators will be fined P500 or imprisoned for not more than 30 days at the court’s discretion.

The municipal council passed the ordinance in response to the spate of crimes that has disturbed the peace in Los Baños in the past months, including the rape-slay of a coed of the University of the Philippines Los Baños, the fatal stabbing of another UPLB student in a robbery, and the killing of a female student of the Los Baños National High School.

Another student of the Los Baños-based UP Open University was also stabbed and wounded in his boarding house by robbers who took his laptop.

“Results of police investigations revealed that the perpetrators, riding either in a tricycle or motorcycle, both drunk or drugged, waited in secluded and dimly lit places for their would-be victims carrying cellular phones, laptops and other expensive valuables,” the municipal council said.

The ordinance, according to the councilors, aims “to protect and safeguard” the residents from these lawless elements.

The ordinance reinforces an existing one that regulates the sale of alcoholic beverages in Los Baños from 8 a.m. to midnight.