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BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – Starting today, traffic enforcers will confiscate the licenses of drivers violating traffic rules after issuing them citation tickets.
City Ordinance No. 09-16-790 granted personnel of the Bacolod Traffic Authority Office (BTAO) such power.
New citation tickets indicate that the erring driver must surrender their license to the enforcer who caught them, said Superintendent Luisito Acebuche, BTAO officer-in-charge.
An erring driver who refuses to turn over their license faces a fine of P500 or a five- to 10-day imprisonment, or both, the ordinance stated.
The citation ticket shall serve as the erring driver’s temporary license. They may claim their original license from the BTAO upon paying the fine within three days from the issuance of the citation ticket.
Bacolod is “confronting a gargantuan task of finding solutions to its traffic woes and constrained to undertake necessary steps and novel measures to put order on the streets,” said Councilor Dindo Ramos, author of the ordinance.
Abusive and undisciplined drivers — along with the increasing number of vehicles, illegal structures on streets and lack of traffic signage — contribute to worsening traffic here, the transportation committee chairman said.
To address “negligent, improper and imprudent driving,” the city must “give teeth to its traffic officers and/or enforcers by granting them authority to confiscate the driver’s license of an erring driver upon the issuance of the city citation ticket,” he said.
But under Republic Act 4136, or the Land Transportation and Traffic Code, only law enforcers deputized by the Land Transportation Office are authorized to confiscate the licenses of erring drivers.
City Legal Office head Joselito Bayatan said an ordinance “always enjoys the presumption of validity unless challenged in court.”
“It is an act of legislation. We have to follow [it] because a city ordinance is a (local) law,” said the city legal officer. “If somebody questions its validity for whatever ground, we are ready to defend it.”
Ramos said the ordinance “passed the scrutiny and thorough deliberation of the city council” and is “supported by laws and jurisprudence,” but “everyone is welcome to challenge [its] legality.”/PN
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