Council to review amendments to helmet use ordinance

THE City Council’s committee on public safety, communications, and transportation secured an extension to review a proposed amendment to an ordinance requiring the removal of helmets and other facial covers upon entering establishments.

This development came after Councilor Jose Pepe Abbu Jr raised the concern voiced by the city’s Muslim community about the ordinance during last Monday afternoon’s session of the 20th City Council.

Abbu said this concern was relayed to him during a community legal education program by the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) to which he was invited as a speaker.

“They said that according to their religious beliefs, the Muslim women cannot remove (their) veil in public and that they can only do so in front of their husbands,” Abbu said.

While some Muslim leaders in the city understood the rationale behind Ordinance No. 14422-2022 requiring the removal of helmets and other facial covering, Abbu said they asked for a compromise on its enforcement.

“They asked that female guards or female personnel be assigned (to view the Muslim women as they remove their veils),” Abbu said.

Councilor Romeo Calizo, who chairs the public safety committee, asked for a deferment on the proposed amendment at least until they review the provisions.

“I’m concerned on how these amendments will affect the ordinance (in terms of enforcement),” he said.

Rather than amend the ordinance, Calizo said these changes can be incorporated into the existing ordinance’s implementing rules and regulations.

Councilor Edgar Cabanlas, who authored Proposed Ordinance No. 2023-127 amending Ordinance No. 14422-2022, posed no objection to the deferment.

“We also have to determine if this ordinance (either benefitted or inconvenienced) the public,” he said.

Cabanlas said it also remains to be seen if establishments in the city fully complied with the ordinance which was enacted in response to the occurrence of robberies involving masked perpetrators.

For his part, Councilor Malvern Esparcia said city offices and establishments should be required to install security cameras to help law enforcers identify perpetrators of criminal activities. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)