Zamboanga City - - Provisions of the City Traffic Code will be enforced to the letter even on Saturdays and Sundays as well as holidays starting today, September 6.

Acting City Administrator Elmeir Apolinario bared this, as he directed the deployment of the City Hall traffic team to their assigned stations Mondays through Sundays starting today.

“There will be no let up in our implementation of the traffic laws”, Apolinario declared citing an order issued by Mayor Celso Lobregat.

He said the strict enforcement of the law is purposely to instill law and order in the streets downtown.
Among the traffic regulations commonly violated are unauthorized or illegal parking, jaywalking, sidewalk vending, violation of the one way policy and others.
Apolinario vowed that the full implementation of the traffic rules and regulations based on Ordinance 248 or the Traffic Code of Zamboanga sustained.

“We seek people’s cooperation and support to this campaign so that we will have law and order in the city streets”, the acting city administrator stressed.
The city government has recently operated the towing truck, a vehicle that is being used to transport vehicles to the impounding area due to parking violations and other offenses.

“With this towing truck, we can now implement section 12 of Article 7 and Section 7 of Article 12 of Ordinance 248,” Mayor Lobregat said.

Section 12 of Article 7 talks about “towing and impounding of vehicles” and provides that “vehicles parked in no parking areas, abandoned in any public highway or street, and stranded or disabled in the roadway or sidewalk, which are causing obstruction to vehicular and pedestrian traffic, after notice by means that the Zamboanga City Traffic Management Operations or any of its authorized representative may be deemed sufficient, be towed to the premises of the Zamboanga City Police Office or to any other area designated as such.

Section 7 or Article 12 on the other hand specifies the towing charges and storage fee rates as follows: tow charge for light vehicles with engine displacement of 0-1600cc will be P800 and storage fee will be P50/day; tow charge for medium vehicles with engine displacement of 1601 to 2800cc will be P1000 with storage fee of P75/day while tow charge for heavy vehicles with engine displacement of 2601cc and above will be P1200 with storage fee of P100/day.
Prior to the utilization of the towing truck last August 25, the city administrator’s office has conducted a massive information dissemination campaign to make people aware of the effects of violating traffic rules. (Sheila Covarrubias)