City dad going after modified car mufflers

CEBU, Philippines - Annoyed by loud cars in city streets, a Cebu City councilor is proposing a measure that seeks to impose a 4,900- to 24,900-percent increase in fines against those who modify their vehicle mufflers.

A muffler or a silencer is a devise attached to vehicle exhaust pipes that helps to diminish the loud sounds emitted by car engines.

However, Cebu City Councilor Roberto Cabarrubias said “a number of vehicle owners remove these silencers or modify their mufflers to make the sounds… louder”.

“There is a need to make people act responsibly over the use of their property so as not to cause disturbance and annoyance to the public,” he said.

Cabarrubias said that while vehicles are originally equipped with silencers or mufflers for anti-noise pollution reasons, there are those who remove or modify the said device.

His proposal got the support of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

“Anything that will already contribute noise is a public and security concern….  It will intrude already the right of an individual to have a peaceful living,” Rama said.

Cabarrubias sought to penalize those who “use or operate any motor vehicle so modified or with removed muffler as to cause loud and unnecessary or unreasonable noise, including the noise resulting from exhaust, which is clearly audible from nearby properties and unreasonably disturbing to the quiet, comfort, or repose of other persons”.

Section 3(2) of the proposed measure also prohibits the use or operation of “any motor vehicle that emits noise higher than 84 decibels even if not modified.”

Cabarrubias’ “Anti-muffler Modification Ordinance of 2013” imposes a fine of P1,000 and/or imprisonment for one month for first offense; P2,000 and/or imprisonment for two months for second offense; and P5,000 and/or imprisonment for three months for third offense.

The P1,000 fine is 4,900 percent higher than the P20 stipulated under the 1964 City Ordinance 465, which requires the use of a silencer or muffler for all vehicles that emit “loud and deafening blasts”.

“There is a need to revisit City Ordinance No. 465 to make it more attuned to the advances in technology and contemporary practices of motorists, and to be more specific with limitations on changes, alterations or modifications that may be made on exhaust pipes of motor vehicles,” the councilor said.

The City already has City Ordinance No. 309 (Anti-Noise Ordinance), as amended by City Ordinance Nos. 1313, 1705 and 1898, which makes it unlawful for “any person to willfully cause loud and deafening blast of engines…of motor vehicles”.

It however, stipulates the prohibition to be between 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. the following day only.

Cabarrubias’ proposed ordinance has been referred to Council committee on laws headed by City Councilor Sisinio Andales for further for its comment. —/RHM (FREEMAN)