Santo Tomas, Pampanga – Mayor Gloria “Ninang” Ronquillo led teams of municipal enforcers on Monday and swooped down on a section of MacArthur Highway in Barangay Balangcas here to clear out illegally parked vehicles and road obstructions.
The clearing teams were composed of the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire, barangay and municipal officials. Ronquillo said the clearing is part of her commitment to the marching order of President Rodrigo Duterte to clear out major road networks of obstructions.
The local government started its campaign at Barangay Balangcas which is notorious for parked vehicles along the side of the highway.
The area is a cottage industry for locally produced vehicles.
Teams cleared areas of garbage, illegally parked vehicles and structures that have spilled into the road’s canal system.”This area is the entrance to our town. The traffic has been a problem and there have been cases of accidents brought about by obstructions,” Ronquillo added.
Ronquillo credits the traffic problem to a number of factors, including obstruction of the streets, alleys, sidewalks, and parks for commercial purposes, causing inconvenience to motorists.
Memorandum Circular 2019-121 issued by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on July 29 — to reclaim public roads of private use by individuals or entities.
The DILG memorandum encouraged local officials to exercise their powers to revoke permits that give private entities authority to use parts of any public road.
Ronquillo said that she will be giving a grace period to those found in violation of obstructions to clear areas they have occupied.