SP Enacts Law on Unsafe Acts of Bus Drivers
LINGAYEN – The Sangguniang Panlalawigan has enacted an ordinance prohibiting and penalizing the unsafe and obstructive acts of bus drivers and inspectors during routine inspection and checking of passenger tickets while their buses are in transit along the national highway in Pangasinan.
Provincial Ordinance No. 27-2015 saw its approval during the SP’s regular session held on July 13.
Board Member Raul Sison who authored the resolution stressed the need for the regulatory measure to protect the lives and limbs of people from probable danger when traveling.
Sison said the ordinance also seeks to prevent unreasonable delay of other road users, particularly in Pangasinan, as he noted the common practice of two bus drivers who habitually stop their transport vehicles on opposite directions in the middle of the road to accommodate alighting and boarding inspectors, causing undue inconvenience.
Persons covered under the ordinance include all drivers and inspectors of common carriers, particularly buses, plying the roads within the province.
Violators will be fined P1, 000 each (driver or inspector) for first offense, P2, 000 for 2nd offenders and P5, 000 and imprisonment of not more than 30 days, or both after due notice and hearing for 3rd offenders.
A second ordinance, Provincial Ordinance No. 26-2015 was also enacted during the same session which provides for the policies and fees of the Carotid Duplex Scan procedure at the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital (PPH) in San Carlos City. The ordinance amends Provincial Tax Ordinance No. 1-2012, imposing fees for the use of the equipment.
The ordinance, authored by BM Napoleon Fontelera, calls for the use of the Carotid Duplex Scan equipment at the Heart Station of the PPH by a vascular medicine consultant who is a Board Certified Cardiologist, together with a trained vascular technician as required by the Philippine Society of Vascular Medicine.
Fees and charges will cost out-patients and in-patients the amount of P2, 800 and a reader’s fee of P1, 000. Charity and indigent patients who are excluded from paying the reader’s fee will be charged a lesser amount of P2, 500 which will likewise be charged under the Philhealth program.