BACOLOD CITY-- A total of 34 smoking ban violators on board public utility jeepneys (PUJs) have been apprehended more than a month after the strict enforcement of the law in this city, based on the records of the Bacolod Traffic Authority Office (BTAO).
BTAO, which recorded the apprehensions from July 25 to August 31, reported on Friday that the violators included 23 passengers and 11 public utility jeepney drivers.
Superintendent LuisitoAcebuche, chief of BTAO, said traffic enforcers are assigned to monitor and arrest violators in public utility vehicles only.
“They should pay the fines, and if they fail to do so within 72 hours, they will be charged for violation of City Ordinance 641,” the BTAO chief said.
City Ordinance 614, which was passed in 2013, regulates smoking in public places, including public conveyances, and advertisements, promotions, and sponsorships of tobacco products.
Violators will pay a fine of PHP500 for first offense, PHP1,000 for second offense, and PHP2,500 or imprisonment for third offense.
Bacolod’s anti-smoking task force, formed to enforce City Ordinance 641, was reactivated in support of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order No. 26 which bans smoking in public and enclosed places nationwide starting July 22 this year.
Other prohibited acts are smoking within enclosed public places and public conveyances, except in designated smoking areas (DSA); selling of tobacco products to minors; ordering a minor to use, buy, or distribute tobacco products; and placing tobacco advertisements outside the premises of point-of-sale establishments.
Councilor Caesar Distrito, co-chairman of the Anti-Smoking Task Force, said they are following a two-way approach in addressing the smoking issue.
These include education and information, and strict implementation, which should be done simultaneously, he added.
Distrito said members of the action team will be trained on the proper apprehension of violators.
The police will assist in the enforcement and those in the barangays will also be trained to help, he added. (PNA)
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