RAMIREZ
If you see tents being put up in front of chapels occupying one lane of the road obviously constricting the movement of vehicles in the area, one can immediately doubt the sincerity of the city government in clearing the roads of obstructions to mitigate the worsening flow of traffic.
How can the Cebu City Traffic Office (CCTO) impose the clamping or towing of vehicles parked on the road side when they allow the partial closure of any roads to give way to wakes, fiestas, masses, clan reunions and other activities in the different barangays?
Who could have given the go signal for the partial closure of public roads for the following purpose if indeed they have permit to do so?
But if they have none, then all the more reasons that the CCTO must run after the violators because the practice is detrimental to the motoring public.
I understand that there are families who don’t have space to hold wake, but this is not enough reason why the motorist would suffer in the process because one lane of the road is occupied by tables and chairs.
What is more appalling is that, there are only people using the space towards midnight until early morning while the occupied part of the road is blocked 24 hours.
During the weekend I passed by three portions of the road in barangay Labangon and Tisa where one lane of the road is being obstructed by tents, one was in Duterte Street, one in front of a chapel in Katipunan and another near the siomai stalls in Tisa in F. Llamas Street.
While I am happy with the reintroduction of clamping of illegally parked vehicles starting last October, I just could not comprehend why the city traffic office maintains a double standard in the clearing of the roads by imposing fines on vehicle owners but allowing the roads to be obstructed by tents.
In a social media post last month, residents of a private subdivision in Banawa condemned CCTO for clamping their vehicles parked outside their home in the interior roads of their subdivision.
Netizens even questioned if CCTO had jurisdiction over private roads. Duterte Street in Banawa and Katipunan Street in Labangon and F. Llamas in Tisa are not interior roads.
All the more reason why CCTO personnel must be more vigilant and stringent in implementing the traffic laws especially in the clearing of the road to ease traffic.
The city traffic office might have overlooked the fact that Katipunan and Duterte Streets serve as alternative roads to decongest traffic in the closed junction of Natalio Bacalso Avenue and F. Llamas Street due to the on-going construction of an underpass project.
The leadership of CCTO could not make an excuse that they are not aware of road partial road closures due to wakes and other activities because this is their primary responsibility to monitor the road of obstruction to maintain ease of traffic.
It is understandable that barangay officials would deem to tolerate these activities, since they are also afraid of the repercussions of their action especially now that the elections are coming. But the CCTO didn’t have an excuse in not calling the attention of barangay officials.
I hope that CCTO would not rationalize that they could not do anything about the obstructing tents because they only deal with illegally parked motor vehicles. Then I guess it is the chance of reappointed city demolition team chief Raquel Arce to come in to the picture.