By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

DURING the day, bus stops provide shelters for students waiting for the school bus to pick them up. When the nighttime sets in, these transportation waiting areas turn into hangout places for smokers, drinkers and street party goers.
“A number of mayors, vice mayors and concerned parents have called my attention to this problem. People drink and smoke and leave their trash in the bus shelters,” said Sen. Tony Unpingco, R-Santa Rita, author of Bill 52, which seeks to ban smoking and drinking at bus shelters that serve as waiting areas for students.
If enacted into law, Unpingco said, any one caught violating the smoking and drinking prohibitions at bus shelters would face misdemeanor charges, punishable by fines or imprisonment.
“These prohibitions can also realize a secondary benefit of less littering around the bus stops,” states Bill 52, cosponsored by Minority Leader Judi Won Pat, D-Malojloj.