Too heavy

A crackdown on jaywalking in Cebu City’s streets may be a minor talking point among city officials, but opposition to the proposed amendment to the existing anti-jaywalking ordinance isn’t to be taken lightly.

Aside from students and average wage earners, it’s surprising that the Cebu City Integrated Traffic Operations Management (Citom) registered its opposition to the amendment that would impose a minimum of P200 to a maximum of P1,000 for violators of the jaywalking ordinance.

The City Council didn’t take the Citom opposition lightly and grilled its officials in last Wednesday’s session to verify whether they weren’t taking a cue from Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, who said he is opposed to the increased fine.

The Citom rationale appears reasonable enough and it is largely supported by minimum income earners. The anti-jaywalking ordinance is especially useful in the downtown area in Colon Street populated by schools, vendors and all manner of commercial establishments.

“Not everyone carries P200 in their pocket. That amount could buy a violator five kilos of rice,” said Brenette Abrenica, a professor of the University of San Carlos in last Wednesday’s session.

True, but then not everyone becomes a violator. If we are to go by the reasoning of the proponents, the amount of fines to be imposed in the amended ordinance would only serve as a deterrent, a reminder to the commuters to always walk the pedestrian lanes and never ever take shortcuts that would only disrupt traffic and inconvenience motorist and commuter alike.

The problem arises when there are violators caught. Rama had a point when he said the higher fines would tempt traffic enforcers to become unusually hawkish and meticulous towards people crossing the street.

Let’s see, if a traffic enforcer manages to pick up five violators a day, that would already amount to at least P1,000. Skim some fat from the revenue—or probably take it all—then the enforcer would have a tidy sum by the end of two weeks or the month.

This is not to say that all traffic enforcers are corrupt or that city residents would find it difficult to observe the anti-jaywalking ordinance. It’s just that updating the ordinance to include higher fines isn’t clearly the way to go.

Instead of the maximum P1,000, why not meet halfway and charge P500 as the maximum amount? Surely the council would have thought about that option last Wednesday.

That and tapping the presence of more authorized and professionally trained volunteers to assist the Citom in implementing traffic rules would have quite a considerable effect on vehicular and pedestrian movement in Cebu City.

Thankfully the amendments are still under study. To further buttress their position, the Citom should finish a study on the 10-year implementation of the existing ordinance to see if amending the amount would be an effective check against violators.