Former dad’s legacy lives on
TMC notes higher compliance rate to
Zozobrado’s helmet ordinance

It has been a year on April 26, since former councilor Jesus Zozobrado death. However, his memory lives on thanks to an ordinance he penned which continues to prevent accidents and deaths among the city’s motorists.

“Na notice namo na grabe ang compliance sa helmet ordinance sukad ikompara nato katong wala pa ang ordinansa (we noticed a high compliance rate to the helmet ordinance compared to the time when it has not been approved yet),” Traffic Management Office deputy chief Bibiano Alcuizar said yesterday.

Alcuizar was referring to City Ordinance 0189 which regulates the use of single motorcycles by limiting the number of passengers to only persons including the driver. The same ordinance also required motorcycle drivers and their passenger or backrider to wear the prescribed helmet to prevent death as a result of motorcycle accidents.

Repubic Act 4136 creating the Land Transportation Office already required the wearing of helmets but the law has not really been implemented especially in the third district of Davao where habal-habals ferry as many as five (some more than that) passengers in one motorcycles.

“Mas aware na ang mga tao karon na required gyud sila mag suot ug helmet tungod sa pagsaba-saba ni Zozobrado kaniadto,” Alcuizar said. There are a few who still violate the ordinance “pero grabe gyud ang pagbaba sa violation sa pipila ka tuig,” he added.

Zozobrado’s peers in the city council also miss the bombastic councilor who never let an argument pass if it involves corruption and the welfare of the Dabawenyos. However, the Zozobrado legacy continues to live on not only through his ordinance but also through the presence of his daughter who is now a city councilor and his son Atty. Jesus Zozobrado who is assistant regional director of LTO XI.

“In more ways than one, papa was my hero, the end all and be all of everything I did. I became a lawyer because he was a lawyer. And like him, I also served as a public prosecutor. Now, I am a public official because I want to continue the service he began, continue his legacy. And what a legacy he left us... more precious than any fame or property could ever be,” councilor Rachel Zozobrado said.

Up to the end, she said, the former councilor made his family proud because he has never tarnished the name and reputation he had painstakingly built.