San Juan mayor seeks removal of pink fences

Acting on the complaints of his constituents, San Juan Mayor Joseph Victor Ejercito has asked the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to immediately dismantle the pink fences on a portion of EDSA in the municipality.

In a letter to MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando, the mayor pointed out that the steel railings, have been causing heavy traffic in the highly commercial Greenhills area.

Ejercito said that while he is supportive of other MMDA projects to improve the flow of traffic in Metro Manila, he has to listen to the private and business sectors greatly affected by the pink fences.

"I have reiterated that the pink fences at the EDSA-San Juan portion have been subject of numerous complaints from my constituents," the young mayor said, adding he followed Fernando’s suggestion to conduct monitoring in the area.

He pointed out that the pink fences project is just the one to which he has objected because it greatly affects his constituents.

"In view of the foregoing, I respectfully request that the pink fences at the San Juan portion of EDSA be immediately removed" Ejercito said in his letter.

Should the MMDA fail to heed his call up to 9 a.m. tomorrow, Ejercito vowed to have the fences removed by the local engineering department and return them to Fernando.

In a separate interview, the MMDA chief said he has spoken with Ejercito and both have agreed to keep the fences in the San Juan portion of EDSA.

"Nagkausap na kami. Ongoing na ang construction ng permanent solution natin na loading at unloading bay. This will be finished in two weeks," Fernando said.

The pink fences set to be completely installed in the 24-kilometer stretch of the yellow-lanes on EDSA, aims to segregate the public utility vehicles from private ones.

The project also intends to establish an average speed of 25 kilometers per hour on the three lanes of EDSA.

MMDA officials said a total of 820,000 vehicles use EDSA daily — 106,000 trips by buses and 713,200 trips by private vehicles. – With Michael Punongbayan