BY RAYMART ESCOPEL
ILOILO City – The barkers are back, and one was arrested.
Relative to the stricter implementation of Regulation Ordinance No. 2014-194 which prohibits barkers from plying their trade, a violator was arrested on July 4 on Valeria Street.
Policemen caught Elson Coleta, 20, of Zone 2, Bo. Obrero calling passengers to board a public utility jeepney near Marymart Mall.
Coleta was detained at Police Precinct 1.
The Iloilo City Peace and Order Council had described barkers as “menace to society and detrimental to the transport sector.”
The Anti-Barker Ordinance of Iloilo City is the first one to criminalize barkers and establish penalties for them.
A violator could be jailed for a minimum of three months but not more than six month.
The ordinance makes it unlawful for any person to loiter in public places, open parking spaces and designated loading and unloading areas, and intermittently perform and act as barker for public utility jeepneys, vans, taxis and buses even with prior consent from the driver or any transport organization.
When found guilty, a barker will face imprisonment of not less than three months but not more than six months.
The barkers may be apprehended through citizen or police arrest at any time.
The ordinance defines a barker as “an individual who calls for, facilitates, induces or convinces commuters to board a particular or preferred public utility vehicle such as jeepney, taxi, van and bus for the purpose of extracting an amount from the vehicle’s driver.”
In a previous interview, Councilor Plaridel Nava, chairman of the Sangguniang Panlungsod’s Committee on Transportation, said he had been receiving complaints from drivers who can no longer tolerate barkers.
Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog previously distributed livelihood cash assistance amounting to P5,000 to each barker, and encouraged them to start a business and leave the streets.
The barkers, however, just took the money and continued with their now illegal livelihood.
“Mas nagdamo pa gani sila,” Nava disclosed./PN
