CITOM searches for erring drivers, tells violators to pay fines

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Traffic Operations Management failed to arrest some of the seven erring private drivers who allegedly gave false addresses.

“Naglisod gyud mi og locate sa kadtong mga drivers nga dunay bench warrants kay dili mao ang gihatag nga address,” CITOM operations chief Joy Tumulak said.

Tumulak said four of the seven respondents have given inaccurate home addresses.

The other three were a businessman, a nurse and a sibling of a police officer.

Two teams of traffic enforcers were deployed yesterday in north and south districts to issue the bench warrants.

The enforcers, how-ever, failed to arrest the three violators because they were not around when they served the bench warrants.

But a Lapu-Lapu City police officer, who is currently living in Barangay Guadalupe and whose brother is a subject of a bench warrant, appealed before the CITOM office to reconsider the decision.

The legal officer of CITOM though advised the police officer to urge his brother to surrender and pay the P500 penalty.

CITOM will withdraw the complaint if the drivers will settle their obligations.

Further, Tumulak advised motorists to abide by traffic rules and regulations and pay the penalties for violations to avoid getting issued a bench warrant.

“Please do not disregard or violate traffic signs to avoid the issuance of bench warrants,” he said.

Municipal Trial Court in Cities Executive Judge Francisco Seville issued bench warrants against 307 public and private drivers in the city who are now facing arrests for failing to settle their obligations for traffic violations.

Covered by the warrant are 103 public utility vehicle drivers, 48 taxi drivers, and 27 owners of private vehicles.

Meanwhile, CITOM impounded a motorcycle parked at a “no parking zone” along R.R. Landon Street yesterday while nine owners of the illegally parked motorcycles were given citation tickets.

Tumulak said the impounded vehicle has no plate number but has a police sticker on it. It was parked beside the Police Regional Office-7 camp across Cebu Normal University.

“The sticker can be bought everywhere. Ang owner sa motor wa man pud lukata. We can’t allow anyone nga mo-parking sa restricted areas.” he said. — Kristine B. Quintas/ATO (FREEMAN)