ANGELES CITY – With the restrictions imposed by community quarantine on accessibility to the market, food delivery services gained ground as much in popularity and profitability.
However, with this came the cruel jokes played on delivery riders – the cancellation of food delivery orders already paid for by couriers. So prevalent has this become that the local legislative body here had tocall for a stop to it: Pranking has been cancelled as a joke and raised to the level of a crime in this city.
In a belatedly released report, the sangguniang panlungsod of Angeles City passed Ordinance No. 536 S-2020 or the Anti-Online Pranking Food Delivery Ordinance of 2020, reputedly the first of its kind in the whole Philippines, last April 20, and approved by Mayor Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin on April 29.
Councilor Amos Rivera, principal sponsor of the ordinance, said the measure aims to ensure the protection of food delivery drivers from prank and bogus callers, as well as a way of thanking them for their sacrifices and services.
Officially titled “An Ordinance Penalizing the Act of Pranking Food Deliveries Ordered Online And Any Other Forms of Electronic Messaging To be Paid On ‘Cash-On-Delivery’ Basis, As Well as Refusing To Pay For Online Orders Without Valid Justification And For Other Purposes,” the measure covers “all transactions made through online and/or over the internet – website, social media, delivery service applications, mobile and landline, either phone call or text in personal, residential, commercial and industrial establishments, including government offices located within the territorial jurisdiction of Angeles City...”
The ordinance mandates a penal provision that “any person violating or causing, inducing, or abetting the violation of any prohibitory provision of the Ordinance, upon final conviction by the court, will be imprisoned for no less than one month but not more than six months and will pay a fine of not less than P1,000 but not more than P5,000.”
On setting accountability, the ordinance said: “The franchise and/or acknowledged owner of the mobile phone number, landline number as well as of the social media account or e-mail address used in the act of pranking Food Delivery Service ordered, be it online or through mobile/landline phone is prima facie considered the caller or customer who placed the order unless otherwise the user was made known or identified.”
Aside from Rivera, listed as co-sponsors of the ordinance are councilors Arvin M. Suller, Thelma P. Indiongco, Raco Paolo S. Del Rosario, and Joan Crystal DJ Aguas.
