PUBLIO J. BRIONES III:

Since the Cebu City Government started cracking down on illegal parking at the end of last month, the traffic office has clamped close to 200 vehicles mostly on Urgello St. and in the Banawa area in Guadalupe. Briones supports the City’s move to strictly enforce the latter’s parking ordinances. His daily close brushes with passing vehicles as he makes his way to the Cebu City Sports Center and Urgello from work on foot has seen to that. He points out that the situation is at its worst in front of the Fessags 7 office where double-parking vehicles sometimes hog one whole lane.

Isee the Cebu City Government has been clamping on violators of illegal parking. Literally. It must have read the column I wrote back in July about how it could earn so much money, as in SO MUCH, quickly if it religiously implements its own parking ordinances. The figures I came up with were staggering. Assuming that the penalty is P3,000, the traffic office can, if it clamps an average of 100 vehicles a day, earn P300,000. Or P2,100,000 a week. Or P63,000,000 a month. Or 22,995,000,000 a year. And so on and so forth.

Then again, maybe it doesn’t even know who I am. After all I am being presumptuous.

Either way, the City is sending a strong signal to the public that with car ownership comes great responsibility.

First and foremost, if you don’t have access to legal parking, you should think twice about purchasing a vehicle. Many owners out there think the road is an extension to their property. Ah, newsflash, it isn’t. You see, when you illegally park your car on a road like R. Landon, for example, which, by the way, is a wheel clamping tow-away zone, you expose pedestrians to the dangers of other passing cars since there is no proper sidewalk.

I should know. I walk that route daily on my way to the oval and to my grandmother’s house on Urgello St. from the office. And many a times I have felt the hair on my arms stand up when a car brushes perilously close.

The situation is worst in front of the Fessags 7 office.

Sometimes, two to three vehicles double-park at the same time. And I’m not talking about teenie-weenie toy cars, I’m referring to those 4 x 4s that hog an entire lane.

Really.

So please take note, Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO), or are you afraid that you’ll get shot by their owners as most of them are probably there renewing their firearm license?

Not that I blame you if you decide to ignore their flagrant violation of the law. But if the mayor is serious in exercising his political will, then there should be no exceptions.

To those who still don’t know, the City has several ordinances with regards to parking.

One of them, Ordinance 1664, authorizes traffic enforcers “to immobilize any motor vehicle violating parking restrictions and prohibitions.” There’s also Ordinance 1657, or the Clamping Ordinance. Then there’s Ordinance 2043, which “regulates the parking of motor vehicles on certain streets.”

Last week, the CCTO began its crackdown on violators.

In six days, it clamped 131 vehicles for overnight parking. Another 58 vehicles were clamped by the traffic office last Sunday dawn. Most of the vehicles were illegally parked on Urgello St. and in the Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe area.

“We’re really making sure that the ordinance is enforced in our streets because illegal parking in our thoroughfares is one of the factors why our emergency and disaster responders have a hard time accessing the scene of the incident,” Francisco Ouano, CCTO operations head, told SunStar Cebu’s Rona T. Fernandez.

I think Ouano forgot to mention “traffic.” It doesn’t take a genius to come up with the observation that illegal parking, especially on narrow roads, is a major cause of traffic headaches.

“With this development, we hope we could instill discipline among our vehicle owners. Our streets are intended for moving vehicles, not for resting ones,” Ouano said.

I totally agree.