DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Responding to complaints of abusive jeepney barkers, the City Transport and Traffic Management (CTTMO) advises commuters and drivers to file charges against them.
CTTMO head Dionisio Abude told reporters in the City Hall’s I-Speak forum that they have received several complaints of “extortion” and sexual harassment, but the complainants need to file formal charges.
“There should be a complainant to keep them away from the streets because these alleged complaints have been recurring already,” Abude said.
The traffic chief said PUJ drivers who are being asked to shell out money to barkers could file complaints for extortion while those females who believe they are harassed could also file for cases on acts of lasciviousness.
“Why wouldn’t the barkers allow the drivers to leave the drop off areas if the latter can’t give them money even if there are no passengers?” Abude asked.
The CTTMO chief explained that while they can arrest the barkers for such cases, they can’t hold them for long
“We could do citizen’s arrest or the warrantless arrest,” he said. “But, we have no authority to hold them for 24 hours unless someone would file a case.”
Abude said they could do legal inquest on the barkers for these violations but they had to release them.
“We could conduct inquest to them. We could even inquest bogus CTTMO IDs, how much more those that are under the revised penal code. However, our question on how to hold them,” he said.
Abude said the local government has plans to turn the street barkers into street attendants, however, this have been put on hold.
“I have their names in a log book when we called them for a meeting. However, our plan to make them as street attendants have been put on hold in one of the departments of the city planning because once we shift to the bus system, we will no longer have any barkers in the streets,” Abude said. (davaotoday.com)
