Tom junks council’s plea to review order

Saying the implementation of the anti-counterflow measure is effective, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña refused to heed the request of the City Council to review the new policy.

In his press conference yesterday, the mayor said he will just make adjustments if there’s a need to.

“At this point, I don’t see any need to review because it’s working,” he said.

Osmeña said he admitted that there will be fine-tuning and adjustments needed on the policy. But, he said it will not be changed now since the system is working as there are fewer people who were caught violating traffic rules.

It was last Tuesday when the City Council asked the mayor to review the executive order which penalizes a 30-day impoundment of vehicles used in the commission of an offense.

Osmeña said many people will always suggest better ways of doing things but he stressed that there’s no need to fix his system because it’s “not broken.”

Last Thursday, he said the Cebu City Transportation Office enforcers caught only six motorcycles violating the counterflowing executive order.

This means that many people are already aware and afraid of the new policy, he said.

As of yesterday, CCTO Operations Chief Francisco Ouano said the enforcers have impounded over 200 motorcycles, 14 private cars, two taxis, and four public utility jeepneys.

Osmeña said he will not mind if many people will hate him for strictly enforcing the law.

“It is never my intention to make traffic fines affordable because it doesn’t work. It has to be reached (to) a point where the pain is too much mosunod nalang sila,” he said.

He said violators of counterflowing show a “deliberate attempt to break the law” which for him is an aggravating circumstance.

As to the concerns of motorists on the safekeeping of the impounded vehicles, the mayor said Bigfoot already allowed the city government to use the 1.5-hectare warehouse for the impounding of the vehicles.

The mayor said it is safer compared to the open space.

But, if the motorists were concerned on the safety of their vehicles, they should have not violated the anti-counterflowing measure in the first place, the mayor said.

Osmeña added the barangay intelligence network will be deployed at the impounding area to secure the place. He said impounded vehicles will be transferred to the warehouse over the weekend.