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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Saturday, April 1, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Are fines and the risk of losing their driver’s license enough to encourage motorcycle riders to wear helmets? Not quite.
Five days since strictly enforcing an ordinance requiring motorcycle riders to wear protective helmets, the Bacolod Traffic Authority Office (BTAO) apprehended some 861 violators.
The BTAO collected P110,000 in fines from the violators so far.
Worse, among them were four police officers and four BTAO enforcers, said Superintendent Luisito Acebuche, BTAO head.
Acebuche does not have the names of the erring police officers and traffic enforcers as of this writing.
But he said the erring BTAO enforcers will be slapped with fines and a 30-day suspension.
Despite the local authorities’ campaign for the wearing of safety helmets, some motorists are just “pasaway (stubborn),” Acebuche lamented.
The BTAO started cracking down on motorcycle riders not wearing helmets on March 27.
Violators of City Ordinance (CO) No. 466 series of 2008, or the Motorcycle Safety Helmet Ordinance, as amended by CO No. 535, will be fined P300 on first offense, P500 on second offense and P1,000 on third offense.
Third-time offenders also risk the revocation of their driver’s license, said Acebuche.
Councilor Dindo Ramos offered a peculiar point of view on the violators.
Perhaps the violators are testing how consistent the BTAO is in enforcing the ordinance, the chairman of the Sangguniang Panlungsod transportation committee said.
Acebuche vowed that the BTAO will not stop apprehending violators until they become law-abiding citizens.
Starting Monday next week the BTAO will enforce CO No. 338, or the Comprehensive Traffic Ordinance, which prohibits jaywalking and regulates public utility jeepney routes and parking areas.
Acebuche particularly cited Lacson Street, along Robinsons Place in Barangay Mandalagan, and Araneta Street at the downtown area.
Around 80 BTAO enforcers will be deployed to these areas.
Anyone caught jaywalking in Bacolod will be penalized with P100 fine on first offense, P200 on second offense and P300 on third and succeeding offenses.
Violators who cannot pay the fines will have to render community service./PN
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