The proposed ordinance that would exempt Baguio’s senior citizens from vehicle number coding has been delayed in approval, Vice Mayor Faustino Olowan said this week.
According to Olowan, the ordinance should be enacted soon but proper enactment hit some procedural snags.
“Actually, we approved supposedly on third reading. But according to the Committee on Laws chair Councilor Molintas, there is going to be public hearing with the stakeholders, considering that there are penalties,” Olowan said.
Olowan said that the ordinance is intended to provide perks to senior citizens in the city who had lived to advanced age, claiming that the city “owes” them for their contributions to the city through their long lives.
He also assured that the coding exemption will have negligible impact on the traffic situation of the city, and that there will be limitations in place to prevent the abuse of the coding exemptions.
The main check that the ordinance takes into account is that the senior citizen or person with disability (PWD) must be driving the vehicle themselves to qualify for the coding exemption.
“You have to be the one driving… otherwise people will just have senior citizen passengers to try and be exempted. They have to drive,” Olowan said.
