CCTO collection

So what is it about these violators? What makes them so special that their flagrant violation of the City’s several parking ordinances is ignored or tolerated?

The Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) recently announced that it already collected some P66.1 million in various fees, fines and penalties, as of last August.

Compare this number to the P83.2 million it collected from January to December last year, which might explain why the CCTO is walking with a spring in its step. Or so I’d imagine since with the way things are going, the traffic office is bound to exceed its collection target of P100 million this year. Unless it encounters a bump in the road. Still, the news merits a round of applause for the Cebu City Government and another warning to traffic violators that the City is indeed serious in implementing traffic rules and regulations.

If I remember correctly, Mayor Tomas Osmeña had said that these draconian measures were never about generating extra cash for the City, that it was all about disciplining motorists.

And I believe him because if it was all about the money, then the CCTO would be swimming in it by now.

Let’s do some calculations, shall we?

Let’s see, the penalty for an illegally-parked vehicle that is clamped is P1,500. If the CCTO clamps at least 100 vehicles a day, which it can easily do if it wants to be vigilant about it, then that puts P150,000 in its coffers. Every day.

Multiply that by seven (for one week), then that amounts to P1,050,000, or P383,250,000 in a year (365 days).

As I have said before, that’s a lot of mullah. With that much cash in hand, the City won’t have to solely rely on the sale of lots at the South Road Properties to deliver the very basic of services. And mind you, the P383,250,000 is for illegal parking alone, which, according to CCTO operations head Francisco Ouano, made up the bulk of the collections for both 2017 and last year.

“Isa gyud na sa maka-cause ug maka-contribute sa atong traffic. Siguro sa unang panahon, naanad sila but this time ato gyud ni silang gi-istrikto pinaagi sa clamping. Mostly sa madakpan for illegal parking moingon nga nagdali, naay emergency, pero caseto-case basis. Nakita nato nga wa gihapon paglurang ang mga violators,” Ouano told SunStar Cebu’s Rona T. Fernandez.

To those who don’t understand Cebuano, Ouano was lamenting that there are still violators despite the threat of the hefty fines, which, by the way, add up to a total of P3,300 since the CCTO charges an extra P1,800 if the clamped vehicle is towed.

Now, I don’t know if he was referring to motorists who continue to park along the stretch of R. Landon, which is a wheel-clamping and tow-away zone. Although I don’t think he is since the CCTO has failed to address the problem even though I’ve been raising it for the last two years.

So what is it about these violators? What makes them so special that their flagrant violation of the City’s several parking ordinances is ignored or tolerated?

Does it have something to do with the fact that CCTO vehicles also park their vehicles on that same stretch while their personnel have lunch at a small eatery on Pelaez St.?

Still, if the CCTO does indeed exceed its target collection for the year, then it is a step in the right direction.