THE Cebu City Council is considering new parking rules to ease traffic congestion, including a proposal to increase on-street parking rates to discourage street parking and improve traffic flow.
Outgoing Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera proposed an ordinance seeking to amend key provisions of City Ordinance 801, or the Cebu City Traffic Code, which has served as the backbone of the city’s traffic policies since 1972.
Pesquera’s proposal includes updates on both on-street and off-street parking regulations, citing “the passage of time and recent developments in the city.”
She also pushed for a ban on parking along major roads and highways, including South Coastal Road, F. Vestil St., Natalio Bacalso Ave., M.J. Cuenco Ave., Osmeña Blvd., and Serging Osmeña Ave.
Only emergency and authorized vehicles will be exempted. Parking around City Hall will also be strictly regulated, according to the proposed ordinance.
The measure proposes to prohibit unauthorized vehicles from occupying unmetered or improperly designated stalls around the government complex, except on weekends and public holidays.
A key update in the proposal is the extension of on-street parking hours from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, and from Dec. 1 to 24—replacing the outdated reference to Thanksgiving Day, a US holiday not observed in the Philippines.
On-street parking
During the public hearing on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) Assistant Department Head Kent Francesco Jongoy welcomed the ordinance but proposed additional changes, including the transfer of some provisions to Article 12 of the code, which governs on-street parking.
He also suggested renaming Article 12 from “parking meters” to “on-street parking,” citing Cebu’s current reliance on manual parking collectors instead of machines.
Jongoy explained that installing parking meters entails costs, maintenance issues and potential dishonesty among users.
“It requires honest-to-goodness payment,” he said, emphasizing that manual collection remains more practical under current conditions.
Jongoy also recommended extending parking hours to 10 p.m. to accommodate students, employees and businesses operating late into the night.
Without official coverage during those hours, he warned that unauthorized collectors tend to take over, depriving the city of revenues and compromising public safety.
Tokagawa Global Corp. (TGC), the City’s private partner in street parking operations, supported the proposed changes.
TGC president Solomon Say said the ordinance will help reduce congestion, deter illegal collectors and increase official parking revenues.
“This is, of course, unauthorized collections that do not go officially into the city of Cebu. And third, we believe that as this would also increase the official parking revenue of the city, that this would bolster the city’s revenue earning potential from the street parking operations,” said Say.
He added that on-street parking rates are lower than those for off-street facilities, such as malls. This difference, he argued, encourages drivers to park on city streets, contributing to traffic congestion.
Say said raising on-street rates would encourage more drivers to use off-street parking, potentially easing road congestion.
He also agreed with the CCTO’s concerns about illegal collectors taking over after 7 p.m.
Say encouraged expanding the ordinance to address additional outdated traffic rules for broader reforms. / EHP