AM I the only who’s not worried about Oplan Tambay?
Only those who commit violations or have warrants of arrest will be taken to the police station. As for the minors they rescue, the kids will be taken to the barangay hall to await pickup by their parents or guardians.
I thought Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Joel Doria made that clear last Thursday.
Anyway, police are only under orders to enforce national laws or local ordinances that ban smoking in public places, punish public drunkenness, dispatching, curfew violations, violations of anti-noise rules, and vandalism.
Seems pretty straightforward, right?
Let’s see... if you refrain from lighting a cigarette outside your home or your property or in a non-smoking area, you’re safe.
If you don’t puke your guts out on the gutter or fall asleep on the sidewalk or do whatever it is that drunk people usually do, and that includes urinating just about everywhere, then you, too, are safe.
I’m not sure what the police mean by “dispatching” so I’ll assume that it has something to do with jeepney conductors. Just avoid calling out to passengers by the side of the road or hanging on for dear life at the back of the jeepney, then you have nothing to worry about.
As for the curfew, it only applies to minors. And I think different local government units in the metro have different curfews so I guess you check first and then make sure you’re at home when it starts, if you’re a kid, or your kids are at home, if you’re a parent.
Capiche?
Violators of the anti-noise rules. Hmm. You know who you are.
People who believe they’re God’s gift to music and, sad to say, most of them are not, and who sing their hearts out with the volume of their microphone and videoke machine cranked out at maximum, your days are numbered.
Come to think of it, the police might have to make some exemptions, especially if the crooner has the voice of, say, Nat King Cole, then do let him serenade the neighborhood.
But I digress.
Oh, those people who are either hearing-impaired or who believe that what comes out of their mouths is so important that everyone within earshot must know about it—seriously, I don’t care if your neighbor is upset with her mother for refusing to leave Digos so she could come here and take care of her grandchildren—Oplan Tambay wants you.
And finally, vandals.
How you get satisfaction out of destroying or damaging other people’s property beats me. But if it’s your wall you’re defacing or your car you’re denting then you might be a Picasso in the making otherwise, keep off other people’s belongings.
I guess that about covers everything.
If you don’t do any of the above and police still haul your ass to the station because you don’t have a shirt on, well, the last time I checked, there is no law against being shirtless.
Unless, of course, you have a bulging waistline, then it’s best to keep that to yourself.