VEHICLE owners and drivers beware.
City Hall plans to revive the practice of towing away illegally parked cars in Cebu City.
Rafael Yap, head of the City Integrated Traffic Operations Management (Citom), said the towing ordinance will be implemented again as soon as they find a “good” service provider.
Towing operations in the city were suspended in early 2011 amid growing complaints of motorists about the high fees charged and over-zealous private towing companies hired by City Hall under a scheme where the service provider was paid more if they apprehended more violators.
Mayor Michael Rama yesterday said he wanted towing operations done by Citom itself and not by a private contractor.
“It (towing operations) has to be revived. I never wanted it removed but it should be under Citom. Ug private man gud mag sige ug lalis ug pilay bahin (If it is a private operator, we would always be arguing about revenue sharing).,” said the mayor.
Rama said he wanted to avoid a repeat of arguments over how much is the share of towing fees that should go to city hall coffers because this would defeat the purpose of the towing ordinance.
However, Yap said Citom lacks the capacity to o implement its own towing operations.
Citom has yet to purchase a tow truck from the P5 million budget for new vehicles in their 2014 budget.
Yap said it would be best for the city to tap the services of a private towing company as long as the terms are favorable to Cebu City.
Among those who complained about the private towing opeartion was Tinago barangay captain Joel Garganera who filed a civil case against former mayor Tomas Osmeña questioning the award of the service contract to Road Warriors and One-Stop Towing Services without public bidding.
Garganera had a near fist fight with members of One-Stop Towing Services when he stopped the towing crew from removing e vehicle owned by a lawyer-friend parked near a hospital in 2009.
Owners of vehicles towed away for illegal parking were requred to pay a fine of P2,500 four–wheel vehicles and P1,500 for motorcycles.
The city government used to get a 25 percent share of towing fees.