Barangays set to help enforce minors’ curfew

The Cebu City government is preparing to implement the curfew law on minors with the help of the barangays. Above are minors caught violating the curfew law in Mandaue City in this June 2016 file photo.

Officials in the different Cebu City barangays are gearing up to implement the curfew ordinance on minors in their respective barangays.

This developed after a City Council Resolution was approved encouraging Cebu City’s barangays to help implement the city’s curfew ordinance on minors.

Barangay Kamagayan councilor, Rico Ramirez, said that they were already implementing the curfew in their area.

Philip Zafra, Tisa barangay captain, said they started their information drive in the barangay three weeks ago to inform minors and their parents about the curfew ordinance, which prohibits teens below 18 years old to be on the barangay’s streets from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Zafra said they were also coordinating with principals of night high schools to ensure that night high school students would not be penalized and would go straight to their homes after their classes.

He said that while the information drive would continue, Barangay Tisa would start implementing the curfew on Monday.

He, however, said that violators would not yet be meted with penalties because the information dissemination had not been completed.

Resolution

Last Tuesday, a resolution penned by Councilor Dave Tumulak was approved by the City Council. The resolution directs all barangays in the city in coordination with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to enforce City Ordinance No. 1786 of 1999.

The ordinance prohibits minors below 18 years old to be found loitering outside their homes in Cebu City between 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

The ordinance states that those minors found in the streets at night without their guardians, are susceptible to engage in drugs or participate in crimes and mischief.

Penalties, exemptions

First offenders will be escorted to their homes. For second offenders, their guardians would be required to attend a half-day parenting seminar. For third offenders, their guardians would be tasked to render seven days of community service. For fourth offenders and subsequent violators, the guardians of the minor will face appropriate charges filed against them.

The ordinance, however, exempts minors coming home or attending scholastic, educational and religious activities. It also exempts minors tasked to do important errands like going to the hospital.

Cebu City Night High School students gave varied reactions to the ordinance.

“Strengthening the curfew policy is one way of ensuring the safety of minors like me, because our parents are still responsible for our welfare. But there should be considerations given to those with valid justifications such as those students whose homes are situated far away from their schools,” said student Gwyn Ruiz.

But Ram Tabanag, 17, said he believed that the government was not yet ready to implement the ordinance because it lacked the facilities to hold these minors or those children in conflict with the law.