Mandaue City vehicle owners whose units were impounded during checkpoints attend a seminar which is now a pre-requisite for them to be able to claim their vehicles.
MANDAUE CITY, Cebu – Owners of vehicles impounded in Mandaue City during a checkpoint, must undergo a one-hour lecture if they wish to claim their units.
The new policy was implemented by the Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (TEAM) on Tuesday, Aug. 15 but the first-ever one-hour lecture was conducted on Wednesday, Aug. 16 attended by 40 drivers.
Under the new policy, a certificate of attendance for the lecture will be required before their vehicles will be released.
The one-hour seminar will be conducted every 9 a.m every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
If impounded on other days, they should attend the seminar on the closest day of the schedule. Storage fees will be frozen during those days.
If drivers were able to obtain a certificate of attendance, they would only need to pay for their traffic violations.
TEAM Legal Head Hyll Retuya said that drivers and owners of vehicles that were impounded during their checkpoints and operations need to attend the seminar.
The policy was implemented through TEAM’s head Edwin Jumao-as after they noted an increase in the number of drivers who do not have a license and no vehicle registration during their checkpoint.
“Although, gipasayun na unta namo ang pagpaggawas (release) pero nagkadaghan man mao nang nangita mi og lain’g pamaagi para ni sila maminus-minusan, pamaagi niini namasin lang mi nga makat-on sad ni sila, amoa lang tumo’ng og tuyo niini nga makat-on sila sa ila’ng sayop,” said Retuya.
“Importante nga naay kompleto nga dokumento kay mao ni ang nagsubay sa legal nga proseso ug mao ni siyay nagpamatuod nga ang butang imoha. Ug madakpan ta ug naa gale ta sayup, paubos lang ta, dili ta musukol-sukol para dili mapun-an ato baryunon,” said Jerome Lobitañia Barbaso, 40 yrs. old.
Barbaso’s motorcycle was impounded last Thursday because he does not have a driver’s license. He said that he lost his driver’s license and was yet to file an affidavit of loss.
TEAM regularly conducts checkpoints on different streets of the city. This is on top of the big-time operations conducted together with the Land Transportation Office and Traffic Enforcement Unit of the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO).
Joseph Oliver Wenceslao, the mobile operation section officer, said that at least 60 vehicles are flagged every week. Most of them do not have a driver’s license or vehicle registration.
The penalty for each violation is P1,000. The storage fee for motorcycles is P100 per day and P500 daily for bigger vehicles.
Those who would undergo the one-hour lecture are advised to come on time or earlier because latecomers are no longer allowed inside the hall. They would be scheduled for another day.
On Wednesday, a few drivers came late. One of them was Clide Vincent Mayol, 23 yrs. old, from Consolacion.
“Tungod kay nagluto pa ko, naligo pa ko, nya wala ko kahibaw nga traffic diay padung dinhi, gi-schedule mi Biernes, magsayo nako, alas 8 pa lang maayo naa na dinhi,” said Mayol. /rcg
RELATED STORIES:
HPG impounds over 16,000 vehicles, recovers 209 stolen vehicles
TEAM announces another round of amnesty for storage fees of impounded vehicles
TEAM simplifies process for redemption of impounded vehicles