‘Usiseros’ face P5,000 fine, jail time for breaching police cordon

Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim has signed into law an ordinance that imposes penalties on “usiseros,” or kibitzers, who insist on breaching a police line set up in the city.

The ordinance was prompted by the inability of policemen to keep a curious crowd away from the site of last year’s hostage taking at Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park which left several Hong Kong tourists and a dismissed policeman dead.

Lim said that Ordinance No. 8247 was aimed at highlighting the importance of respecting a police cordon.

Ineptitude

He pointed out, “The breach of a police line is a clear and embarrassing indictment of our inability and ineptitude to impose discipline and maintain law and order in times of crises.”

According to Lim, police lines are set up for a reason and they have to be respected.

The law was crafted based on the Aug. 23, 2010, hostage taking where kibitzers completely ig-nored the police line even when dismissed Senior

Inspector Rolando Mendoza was holding a busload of tourists hostage.

The ordinance, which was approved by the city council on the anniversary of the hostage-taking and signed last Thursday by the mayor, penalizes a violator with a fine of P5,000 or a 15-day jail term with the penalties dependent on the court’s discretion.

The law was authored by Councilor Rodolfo Lacsamana who proposed last year the ordinance based on his observation of the hostage-taking where “bystanders in the area completely ignored the police line that was put up by authorities.”

He said that there was no justification for kibitzers to miss the police cordon since the area is marked by bright yellow ribbons on which are written the words, “Police Line. Do not cross.”

Scene from a movie

Lacsamana noted that the hostage-taking was aired on  CNN [and] the whole world watched as it all unfolded—including the onrush of the curious or the so-called ‘usiseros’ who braved the heavy downpour and rushed in droves to the crime scene as if the whole thing was something out of a movie scene or a spectacular display of bravado by swashbuckling gun

fighters.”

In filing the proposed ordinance, he expressed dismay over the “ineptness” of law enforcement agencies in imposing discipline and maintaining law and order in a crisis situation.

The councilor initially proposed a P2,000 fine for violators but the approved ordinance raised the penalty to P5,000.