CEBU CITY, Philippines—The Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) earned P21 million in 100 days of apprehending violators and issuing citation tickets in the city.
According to Ronnie Nadera, the spokesperson of CCTO, at least 23,171 violators have been apprehended from July 1, 2019 fo October 8, 2019.
The bulk of violators are comprised of pedestrians caught for jaywalking and other violations. At least 19,061 pedestrians have been cited.
Aside from pedestrians, 991 cars were clamped, 1,495 were cited for overnight parking, 187 trikes and 242 tricycles were impounded, and 713 motorcycles were also apprehended.
In total, the CCTO was able to issue 40,812 citation tickets with penalty fees ranging from P50 pesos to P1,000, depending on the violation.
Nadera said that most of the violators incur more than just one violations at a time, allowing the CCTO to collect more penalties.
“That’s why the number of tickets issued is way more than the number of individuals,” said Nadera in a phone interview.
The earnings of the CCTO is part of the city’s income and will become part of the general funds.
Nadera said the intensified operations of CCTO is in line with the directives of Mayor Edgardo Labella to control the traffic situation in the city.
In Labella’s 100-day report, he directed CCTO to patrol areas where violations are rampant, educate violate of traffic regulations, exact higher fines, and be aggressive on apprehending violators.
Labella said that even if this is a short-term solution to the traffic situation, it can effectively minimize the problem at hand, while the city plans for the long-term solution, which is a smart digital traffic system.
The mayor already said they are already working on adapting artificial intelligence as a traffic system in the city. /bmjo