SAYING it only creates confusion, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña vetoed the ordinance passed by the City Council that consolidated all the traffic laws in the city.
Osmeña, in his veto message dated July 9, said that unlike its title, the Consolidated Traffic Code authored by Councilor Joel Garganera did not include all traffic-related ordinances of the city, among others.
“In view of the confusion created in the legislative enactment, as well as its implementation and enforcement, this ordinance is prejudicial to public welfare,” reads a portion of the letter.
Osmeña said that while one of the purposes of the proposed ordinance was to “prevent confusion” on the various amendments of City Ordinance (CO) 801, or the Traffic Code of Cebu City, it only “enhanced” what it was trying to avoid.
The mayor said that by not heeding the recommendation to alphabetize the section on the definition of words and phrases, Garganera’s ordinance only added confusion.
Osmeña also pointed out that there were some provisions that were redundant, and were not incorporated, which may appear to have been repealed.
But for Garganera, instead of creating confusion, his ordinance was supposed to be a “stepping stone” toward reviewing CO 801.
During the City Council’s regular session last week, Garganera lamented that alphabetizing was “not completely necessary” since he wanted to arrange the definition of words and phrases in a way that could be easily cross-referenced with CO 801.
He also denied any redundancy of provisions since the concerned provisions raised by the mayor are covered by separate instances.
As to the non-inclusion of all traffic related ordinances, the councilor said it’s because his measure only covers the ordinances and amendatory legislations related to CO 801.
Garganera stood pat that CO 801 causes “more confusion” than that of his measure. He added that he is willing to amend his legislation and incorporate Osmeña’s comments.
“I don’t claim that this ordinance will solve our traffic problems, but as a legislator, I’m simply doing my duty to ensure that our traffic laws are easily accessed and understood if we want our constituents to do their part in obeying our traffic laws,” he said.
Garganera’s ordinance was passed by the City Council last June 26 by an 8-3 vote. (RTF)