BAGUIO CITY – Buoyed by the intensified enforcement of the curfew nationwide, the city council last Monday decided to check on the state of the implementation of the city’s own curfew ordinance on minors.
The body invited representatives from the Baguio City Police Office, the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Office of the City Social Welfare and Development Officer to their next session for an update on the apprehensions and other activities being done.
The body took cue from the proposed resolution filed by Councilor Elaine Sembrano “enjoining the strict implementation of (the city’s curfew ordinance).”
Ordinance No. 50 series of 2009 further amends Ordinance No. 271 series of 1957 entitled “An Ordinance Setting Curfew Hours for Minors to Roam or Play on Streets, Roads, Plazas, Parks or Other Public Places of Establishments in the City and Providing for Other Purposes.”
The measure prohibits children below 16 years of age from roaming or playing in public places or establishments between the hours of 7 p.m. to 5 a.m.
This is curb “acts of delinquency, teenage gang incidents and other infractions of the law committed during nocturnal hours.”
In her proposed measure, Sembrano said, “Police authorities in Metro Manila and other cities and localities throughout the country are presently engaged in a renewed campaign to enforce curfew hours for minors pursuant to local ordinances in said places.”
“In view of this renewed police effort and to safeguard the proper handling and custody of offenders, there is a need to reiterate strict compliance by police authorities in the City of Baguio with the penalty and exemption provisions of the curfew ordinance for minors as expressly stated therein as well as those mandated under applicable existing laws.”
Sembrano also sought to the request the BCPO and the OCSWADO and the local Council for the Protection of Youth and Children to submit their respective operating procedures in the proper apprehension, handling and custody of minors found in violation of the said ordinance./Aileen P. Refuerzo
