Private firm to handle city’s parking system

Parking areas along Colon and other major streets in Cebu City may soon be rehabilitated once the Cebu City Council approves the proposal of a firm to modernize the on-street parking management and parking collection services in the city.

Solomon Say, chief financial officer of Tokagawa Global Corporation, said the company will repaint the parking slots, change the parking signs and rehabilitate the streets once the contract between the company and the City Government will be signed.

“Basically, it (parking operating system) transmits real time traffic information, parking information to a website which the city will have access to for audit purposes. So, everything will be transparent between us and the city to track how much is collected for parking per street and per collector as well,” he told reporters.

Say assured that the city government will not spend anything for the rehabilitation of the streets.

Say presented the company’s unsolicited proposal to the City Council during an executive session last Tuesday.

During the session, Say assured the members of the City Council that the company will absorb all 72 parking aides of the Cebu City Transportation Office that will be displaced because of the privatization of the onstreet parking management.

Aside from absorbing the 72 existing parking aides, Say said that they will hire 72 parking aides more since there will be two shifts for the parking services.

City Councilors Eugenio Gabuya, Jr. and Jerry Guardo proposed the resolution authorizing Mayor Tomas Osmeña to sign the contract between the city government and the Tokagawa Global Corporation.

The resolution is part of the agenda of the regular session of the City Council next week.

Guardo said the city government will save from this three-year contract with the private company.

He said that the city will no longer pay for the salaries of the 72 parking aides and as well as the company’s guaranteed 22 percent revenue share or P8.7 million annual share, whichever is higher.

“We are looking for ways on how we can improve our current traffic management system. Currently, we are using manually. By using manually, we can’t maximize the income generated by the city with this parking,” he said.

Guardo expressed his confidence that the resolution authorizing the mayor to sign the contract will be approved next week.