MMDA: Truck ban back on Roxas Boulevard

MANILA, Philippines - Starting Wednesday, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will implement a temporary truck ban along Roxas Boulevard in preparation for the holiday season and major events the Philippines is hosting in January next year.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said the lane allotted for trucks going to Port Area in Manila will be used as alternative route for vehicles going to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Tolentino said the truck ban aims to ease traffic congestion in the metropolis during the Christmas season, the visit of Pope Francis to the country in January as well as the hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.

The truck ban should have been implemented last August but the agency extended it to alleviate port congestion, the MMDA chief said in his weekly radio program over dzBB.

Tolentino said the agency would also impose a moratorium on roadwork and other construction activities in Metro Manila starting Dec. 15.

“Unfinished road reblockings will be stopped temporarily to allow the vehicles to use these roads,” he said.

Manila gov’t won’t object

For its part, the local government of Manila said yesterday it has no objection to the MMDA’s truck ban along Roxas Boulevard.

“The city government lifted the truck ban in response to the request of the national government. It has always been our position to impose a truck ban, but now that they are implementing it again, we have no objection to that,” Diego Cagahastian, chief of the city’s public information office, said.

Cagahastian said they will be supportive of the national government’s traffic measures.

He added that Roxas Boulevard, being a national road, is under the management of the MMDA and Department of Public Works and Highways.  – With Aie Balagtas See