Taguig eyed as ‘walkable’ city

MANILA, Philippines — The city government has been working for the past several years to clear Taguig’s streets and sidewalks to make it a “walkable” city, Mayor Lino Cayetano said yesterday.

“As it is, Taguig is already a pedestrian-centered city, but we want to make it even more so. We want to make Taguig an even more walkable city,” Cayetano said.

Cayetano said making Taguig a safer and healthier city is part of his 10-point agenda to return the streets to pedestrians.

Starting yesterday, the city government embarked on a renewed drive to clear the city’s streets of illegal structures, illegal vendors and illegally parked vehicles.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año has directed mayors all over the country to “reclaim all public lands” within 60 days or face suspension. The countdown started on Monday.

Binay hits suspension threat 

While she agrees that the 60-day deadline is doable, Makati Mayor Abby Binay yesterday cried foul over the suspension warning.

She said while they can clear the roads, they have a hard time keeping the roads clear due to hard-headed vendors who keep coming back after every cleanup drive.

Binay said they are looking into regulating ambulant vendors and giving homeless Makati residents “livelihood income” on the condition that they no longer return to the streets.

Mayors Edwin Olivarez of Parañaque and Imelda Calixto-Rubiano of Pasay joined the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority in clearing Baclaran’s streets yesterday.

Olivarez said they will sustain the clearing operations to ensure that illegal vendors would not come back and again cause traffic gridlockss.

He said they will transfer affected vendors to a commercial space in Parañaque.

Calixto said she has started talks with nine groups of vendors in the city to ask their help in ensuring Duterte’s order is fulfilled.