Tomas wants to prohibit sale of second hand gadgets

BUYING second hand cellphones within Cebu City will no longer be allowed.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he is planning to request an ally in the council to draft an ordinance that would prohibit the sale of second hand cellphones unless the seller is able to present proof of ownership.

“It’s so easy to buy second hand. If you want to buy cellphones second hand you just walk down the streets,” said Osmeña.

Osmeña said that this measure is aimed to lower the incidents of gadget snatching in the city.

“So, if you snatch the cellphone you will have to snatch the ownership papers also to sell it. To the people (real owners), you can sell your cellphones but make sure to keep the ownership papers,” the mayor said.

Osmeña said that although there was no official statistical data pertaining to the number of snatching incidents in the city, he said he received a lot of text messages complaining about snatched gadgets.

“We don’t have any statistical data [nga nisaka ang number of snatching], but I got texts all the time.” Osmeña said.

Osmeña also complained that the police seems uninterested in solving robbery cases because “it is all over the place.”

“I lost my Iphone 6 and I went to the police. I told them that I can track it to this house but they don’t want to go to that house,” Osmeña said.

However, Osmeña admitted that he does not know yet on how to go about those who sell second hand items, including mobile phones, online.

“Let’s start with the streets first. I don’t know. But if we can reduce the sale of half of it [sale of second hand phones], maybe we can reduce the incidents of snatching by half also,” he said.

Osmeña added that they will still study whether or not the penalties will only be given to the seller or if the buyer will be included.

“That will undergo public hearing,” said Osmeña.