Cebu City mulls opening cockpits, all jeepney routes

Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella. CDN Digital Photo | Morexette Marie Erram

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Legal cockpit arenas and all jeepney routes may be returning to Cebu City if Mayor Edgardo Labella approves the request of the Gamefowl commission and the Jeepney Task Force respectively.

In the past weeks, more sectors have been asking the city government to open certain establishments such as cockpits due to the rise in illegal cockfighting or tigbakay.

Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia, Gamefowl Commission chairperson, has proposed an online streaming system for cockpits so that there would no longer be a need for an audience in the arena.

Without the audience, there will be no shouting or unruly behaviors that might become a medium to spread the virus.

Only the two fighting parties and the cockpit staff will be allowed inside the arena to limit the number of people inside.

Read: Reopen legal cockpit arenas, Cebu City Gamefowl Commission suggests

Labella said the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) had also provided favorable recommendations for the reopening of the cockpits as long as the basic health protocols would be practiced.

“Kung online, pila ra ka tawo ang naa didto. Atong tan-awon kay basin tingale online pero naay lugar nga magpundok, makaviolate gihapon. Duna nay recommendation ang Gamefowl ug EOC, on that note, akong tan-awon,” said the mayor.

(If it is online, then there will only be a few persons there. We will see about that because it is online but there will be areas that will people will gather to watch it and they can still violate the health protocols. The Gamefowl (Commission) and the EOC, have recommendations on that note.)

Read: Inter-city jeepneys told: Apply for permits to enter Cebu City

As for the reopening of the jeepney routes, the Jeepney Task Force has already gotten the go signal from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board in Central Visayas (LTFRB-7).

Councilor James Cuenco, JTF head, said that operators had been making an appeal for their routes to be reopened so that they could already start to recover from the losses which they had incurred since the implementation of the lockdown in 2020.

Read: JTF wants to reopen all jeepney routes in Cebu City

He added that the commuter’s call for the resumption of PUJ operations should be responded to because workers need an efficient transportation system for them to be able to report to work and help in the eventual recovery of Cebu’s economy that was badly hit by the pandemic.

Labella said he had yet to peruse the recommendation of the JTF, but he would be willing to entertain the probability of opening all routes provided that the jeepney operators and drivers remain compliant to the health protocols.

“Actually open gyod ko tanan. I am open to all suggestions in the matter of public transportation,” said the mayor.

(Actually I am open to all. I am open to suggestions in the matter of public transportation.)

As Cebu City enters its six-month under the modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), many sectors are already asking to reopen to recover economically.

The mayor said he would listen to suggestions, but the final decision would still be based on the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation in the city.

/dbs

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