By John Noel E. Herrera
The Iloilo City Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO) apprehended 128 vehicles in the metro during the renewed start of the city government’s anti-illegal parking operations on Tuesday, Jan 10, 2023.
PSTMO head Jeck Conlu said that they assigned four teams for the anti-illegal parking campaign to sustain the operations “all-year round”.
“Order ni Mayor Jerry Trenas that we should sustain man ang operations sa illegal parking, may ara kita four teams nga nagstart na operate, rain or shine, nagstart gid kita. So sige-sige ni siya and i-sustain gid naton ini upod sa ICPO (Iloilo City Police Office), and hopefully, soon, maka-join ang aton LTO (Land Transportation Office) kay all-year round na ni nga campaign,” Conlu said.
Conlu also revealed that 80 percent of the apprehended vehicles were privately owned and most were classified as four-wheel vehicles.
“Most violators are private vehicles. Ang pinakadamo gid is ang four-wheel vehicles, next is ang two-wheel vehicles, and all other vehicles like trucks, and tricycles,” he said.
Citation tickets were also issued to the violators and fined P200. If the driver is not around during the operation, the PSTMO would alarm the LTO to file a complaint against the driver.
“We issue the tickets, kuhaon naton ang driver’s license as procedure naton sa pag-apprehend naton sang mga violators sa city and kung wala sang driver, i-alarm naton and file complaint sa LTO sang iya violation para nga mapa-alarm ang LTO para nga kung mag-renew siya sang vehicles, ma-settle sya danay sang payment sa aton prior pag-approve sang iya renewal,” Conlu said.
The PSTMO added that they are also in the process of acquiring equipment that they could use to sustain the operation, like tow trucks.
Conlu, however, admitted that they still lack personnel for the operation as there are many streets in the city that should be covered – one of the reasons why they created a strategy of randomly selecting an area where they will operate daily, based on the reports of area supervisors.
“Well, we have personnel, but of course, kung mag ratio kita ya sang personnel naton as to sa dalan, ti hindi gid na siya enough, kag hindi man na pwede nga i-cover naton tanan nga dalan at the same time, so random kita and may personnel kita and assigned man based on our capacity and resources man. The designated areas for operation every day will be based on the reports of area supervisors as to what area has many violators,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Conlu also said that the operation will be temporarily stopped during the celebration of the Dinagyang Festival as all personnel will focus on the festival’s traffic management plan.
“During the festival ya, may-ara man kita ipagahamtang nga designated parking areas, mga roads man gyapon naton because close ang aton city, so (that time) wala kita ya operation for three days because ang aton tanan nga personnel nakatutok sa Dinagyang traffic management plan,” he said.
