PUBLIO J. BRIONES III:

The Cebu City Government shouldn’t have any problems generating cash. And no, it doesn’t have to rely on selling a parcel of lot at the South Road Properties, although any sale will go a long way to finance the delivery of basic services.

But why go through all that hullabaloo when it can make money quite easily, and quickly, by simply implementing and enforcing the City’s own parking ordinances?

I remember back in June 2014, then Citom chief Jonathan Tumulak made it clear to the public that no one was exempt from Ordinance 1664, which authorizes traffic enforcers “to immobilize any motor vehicle violating parking restrictions and parking prohibitions,” when it clamped a government vehicle with red plates for illegally parking near the Gotiaco Bldg. on Burgos St. It also clamped motorcycles of City Hall employees for parking on the same street.

The vehicles had violated Ordinance 2043, which “regulates the parking of motor vehicles in certain streets.”

SunStar Cebu ran a photo of the clamped government vehicle, which I had hoped would scare potential violators. But who was I kidding? In July last year, Mayor Tomas Osmeña, having just replaced his former ally and now rival Michael Rama, also considered the strict implementation of the parking requirement.

With the number of vehicles out on the road, the City wouldn’t have any problem spotting illegally parked vehicles.

In fact, Atty. Rafael Yap, Cebu City Transportation Office head, was quick to remind that a city ordinance that was based on the building code now requires a parking area.

However, the mayor raised the matter to address traffic and not as a way for the City to make money.

If Osmeña exercises his much-flaunted political will, then he can kill two birds with one stone. Although, realistically speaking, he will only be killing one bird since I doubt motorists will heed a parking ordinance. But the upside to this is that the traffic office, and the City, will be rolling in dough because it will be clamping all vehicles on tow-away zones. The last time I heard the penalty was P3,000. Let’s see… thousands of vehicles ply the streets on a daily basis. I’m sure many of these don’t have proper parking.

Now, if the traffic office just clamps 100 vehicles daily, and that’s a very, very conservative number, then it can earn P300,000 every day. Or P2,100,000 a week. Or P63,000,000 a month. Or P22,995,000,000 a year.

The City can start by going after vehicles that park on R. Landon St., especially those that double-park in front of the Fessags 7 office. Talk about causing traffic headaches.