Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival issued Executive Order 084 on July 10, 2026, directing the Cebu City Transportation Office to stop collecting traffic fines for violations that have reached their legal prescription period.
A legal review confirmed that many outstanding fines expired because the City failed to file formal criminal complaints within the 60-day window required by the Revised Penal Code for light offenses.
The CCTO has 60 days to audit its database and tag expired violations as “Prescribed,” while implementing a new electronic monitoring system to ensure timely prosecution of future traffic offenses.
MOTORISTS and public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers in Cebu City will no longer be required to pay prescribed traffic fines following an order from Mayor Nestor Archival. The directive instructs the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) to immediately stop collecting these expired penalties and to conduct a comprehensive audit of its database to separate unenforceable cases from active ones.
The policy shift is detailed in Executive Order (EO) 084, Series of 2026, which was signed on July 10, 2026, and transmitted on July 13. Under the immediate effectivity of this order, the CCTO has been given 60 calendar days to audit its records and classify all documented traffic and transportation violations as either “Prescribed Violations” or “Active or Collectible Violations.”
This administrative overhaul stems from a legal review by the CCTO’s Legal and Investigation Section issued on May 25. The review concluded that a substantial number of outstanding traffic violations had technically expired because the City failed to file formal criminal complaints before the City Prosecutor’s Office within the legal time limit.
Under Cebu City’s Traffic Code and related ordinances, traffic violations are classified as light criminal offenses. According to Articles 90 and 91 of the Revised Penal Code, light offenses carry a two-month or 60-day prescriptive period. This means the government has exactly 60 days from the discovery of the offense to file a formal complaint. If no case is filed within this window, the law automatically extinguishes the driver’s criminal liability.
Prior to the executive order, the CCTO routinely treated these expired violations as active debts. The City required drivers to settle these old fines before they could receive CCTO identification cards, retrieve towed or wheel-clamped vehicles, or obtain official clearances.
Archival stated that the City Government can no longer legally demand payment for violations that have prescribed, warning that continuing to do so could expose the City to liability for illegal exaction. He noted that the practice is legally infirm because there is no longer a valid cause of action once prescription has set in.
Consequently, all expired violations must now be tagged in the CCTO database as “PRESCRIBED — NOT SUBJECT TO COLLECTION.” These specific records can no longer be included in billing statements, mandated for PUV driver ID renewals, or used as a condition to release impounded vehicles. However, the records will not be deleted; they will remain in the database for statistical purposes and may still serve as historical evidence in administrative proceedings that do not involve monetary collection.
To clarify the new system, EO 084 defines a Prescribed Violation as any traffic citation where no criminal complaint was filed within 60 days of issuance. Conversely, an Active or Collectible Violation refers to offenses that are still within their 60-day window or those where the prescription period was successfully paused by filing a timely court case. The order defines the overall audit as “Records Cleansing,” which segregates records without erasing them.
The audit is being conducted by the CCTO’s Legal and Investigation Section alongside the Traffic Enforcement and Parking Operations Division and the Billing and Collection Division. Within 60 days, the team must submit a detailed report to the mayor’s office outlining the total number and monetary value of both prescribed and collectible violations.
Moving forward, the City plans to enforce traffic laws more strictly to prevent future citations from expiring. Apprehended violators will still receive a Traffic Citation Ticket and retain their standard 72-hour settlement period to pay the fine. If a ticket remains unpaid after three days, the CCTO must immediately endorse the case for legal action.
To guarantee the City beats the 60-day legal deadline, the internal timeline for filing charges has been shortened. The CCTO Legal Section must now evaluate and submit unsettled violations to the city prosecutor within 15 days after the settlement period ends. In all cases, the endorsement must happen no later than 45 days from the date of the violation. The City Legal Office is also coordinating with prosecutors to set up a batch-filing mechanism to handle the high volume of cases.
To manage this accelerated workflow, the CCTO has been ordered to build an electronic case-monitoring and docketing system. This digital platform will track every ticket from issuance to prosecution, automatically generating alerts before the two-month deadline expires to prevent another backlog of lapsed fines.
The City is also exploring further administrative consequences through a potential interconnectivity program with the Land Transportation Office. This linkage would allow the City to report unsettled traffic violations to the national agency, potentially turning local citations into administrative demerits that affect the validity of a driver’s license.
To maintain oversight, the CCTO will submit quarterly compliance reports to the mayor, detailing the total violations recorded, cases prosecuted, fines collected and any instances where violations were allowed to expire.
Despite the sweeping changes to old records, city officials clarified that the order is not an amnesty or waiver for recent, valid offenses. The CCTO will continue to collect fines for all active violations, as the executive order does not alter the underlying Traffic Code, but instead ensures its enforcement aligns with statutory time limits. / CAV