San Juan bans parking on Greenhills streets

MANILA, Philippines — San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora’s Executive Order (EO) 4, which penalizes parking on both sides of major city roads within the perimeter of Greenhills Shopping Center, was made effective yesterday.

Under the EO, parking along Club Filipino Avenue and Annapolis, Missouri and Connecticut streets is prohibited from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

“Though the city would lose some in terms of income, it’s worth it because it would lead to relief and convenience to residents. It’s important to think of the greater good and the greater majority,” Zamora told reporters as he led the clearing operations along Club Filipino Avenue yesterday.

Zamora issued the EO days before President Duterte delivered his State of the Nation Address, wherein he ordered local governments to reclaim all public roads that were being used for private purposes.

San Juan, being the geographical center of Metro Manila, is traversed daily by motorists heading to different parts of the National Capital Region, which is why the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has made several of its roads alternate routes or mabuhay lanes.

Annapolis street, which is affected by the EO, is one of the roads that directly link San Juan to EDSA, Metro Manila’s busiest thoroughfare.

Many traffic chokepoints are in Greenhills, the city’s shopping district, due to the issue of street parking. Resolving it was one of Zamora’s campaign promises.

“For the first time in many years, motorists will not be stuck in traffic here in Greenhills Shopping Center,” Zamora said in Filipino.

The city government said there were many other parking alternatives in the area,apart from Greenhills Shopping Center, which will have a total of 5,000 parking slots before the year ends.

In the past, pay parking businesses thrived in the city with parking and traffic ordinances allowing street parking along several major roads in the shopping district. These ordinances, however, have now been superseded by Zamora’s EO.

The San Juan city government, under a previous ordinance, allowed car owners to park in the streets and some mabuhay lanes with charges of P30 for the first three hours and an additional P10 for every succeeding hour.

Now, traffic and parking constables and village police of Greenhills have been authorized to apprehend and issue traffic citation tickets to erring drivers and to tow vehicles blocking traffic. 

Given that San Juan was drowning in debt due to huge spending by the previous administration, Zamora could have used the old ordinance to earn additional revenues for the city but he said he opted to make the “welfare of many” his priority.

He earlier said former mayor Guia Gomez spent a total of P731 million for the new city hall. Of the amount, P520 million went to construction and P43 million to furniture expenses.

This prompted him to enact his first executive order, which institutionalizes the local government integrity system, to track all government transactions.

For the months to come, the mayor said he was seeking to implement same measures along other streets, where applicable.

For some streets in other barangays, Zamora said he wants a one-way traffic scheme and other measures to ease traffic.             – With Non Alquitran