29 defy ‘revived’ ordinance, had their vehicles clamped

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City traffic enforcers yesterday clamped at least 29 vehicles for illegal parking.

City Traffic Operations Management Operations Chief Jonathan Tumulak said all the vehicles were parked near City Hall while the owners attended Mass at the Basilica del Santo Niño or were doing transactions in nearby offices.

“Ignorance of the law excuses no one. Motuman unta sa gibutang nga signage aron malikayan ang penalty,” Tumulak said, adding that CITOM is just implementing City Ordinance 1664, or the city’s clamping ordinance.

Tumulak said minor and major thoroughfares have to be cleared from vehicles due to the influx of devotees and tourists participating in the Sinulog celebration.

“All illegally-parked vehicles will be towed or clamped if they are parked on roads that cause actual obstruction of traffic,” he said.

He emphasized that streets should not be used as “garage” for illegally-parked vehicles to help in easy in cases of alarms and emergencies.

“The violation is seen as a risk to the lives of people because fire trucks and police cars responding to emergencies cannot immediately pass through during emergency situations,” he said, adding that they are just implementing all rules to smooth traffic in all streets.

Citom has at least 40 clamps, but Tumulak said these would not suffice with the current number of vehicles in the city.

For violating CO 1664, car owners must pay P1,000 as clamping fee penalty. And just in case they illegally removed the clamps, resulting to damage to the equipment, they are obliged to pay P40,000  for each malfunctioning clamp.

Citom has started implementing the “revived” ordinance last year due to the increasing number of illegally-parked vehicles on no-parking-zones in the city.

Last year, CITOM launched a campaign against overnight parking in public roads because of complaints from firemen, who said that every time there are fire incidents they could not easily enter streets, especially those in the interior portions of the barangays.

CO 1664, or the city’s tire clamping law, had drawn criticisms from the motorists, who complained that its implementation was “unreasonable.”

In 1997, former Cebu assemblyman Valentino Legaspi and lawyer Bienvenido Jaban, whose cars got clamped, even sued CITOM and the city.

But the Supreme Court has ruled recently that CO 1664, which allows traffic enforcers to clamp illegally-parked vehicles, was constitutional.

The Appellate Court likewise said “it has become necessary to resort to these measures (clamping) because of the traffic congestion caused by illegal parking and the inability of existing penalties to curb it.”

“To reiterate, the clamping of the illegally parked vehicles was a fair and reasonable way to enforce the ordinance against its transgressors; otherwise, the transgressors would evade liability by simply driving away,” it added. — Kristine B. Quintas/RHM (FREEMAN)