Less than a month before the deadline for all local government units to clear roads, a total of 139,959 meters of roads and 52,831 meters of sidewalks were cleared of obstructions in Metro Manila, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said Tuesday.
The Metro Manila Development Authority also demolished two village halls near the Caloocan City Hall as part of the government’s program to clear streets and sidewalks of obstruction.
The demolition was led by Caloocan City Mayor Oscar Malapitan, MMDA Chairman Danilo Lim and MMDA General Manager Jojo Garcia.
But Año, who was satisfied with the performance of Metro Manila mayors in complying with the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to clear roads of illegal structures, said “more needs to be done.”
“We are pleased with the support, cooperation and compliance of Metro mayors to the presidential directive, but we need to do more and we expect them to sustain their efforts in order to help clear the streets of Metro Manila of traffic, Año said.
“As of today, a total of 139,959 meters of roads and 52,831 meters of sidewalk in Metro Manila have been reportedly cleared of obstructions and illegal structures. Our operations further resulted in clearing 1,444 illegal vendors, 49 terminals, 1,292 illegally parked vehicles and 813 obstructions from our roads.”
Aside from conducting road-clearing operations, local governments must enact or revisit ordinances related to road clearing and the banning of illegal constructions, prepare an inventory of roads within their jurisdiction, develop and implement displacement strategies and cause the rehabilitation of recovered public roads.
Año also urged all national government agencies and villages to demolish their structures encroaching on public sidewalks.
“Please do not wait for the DILG to call your attention. National government agencies are also covered by the Presidential directive, Año said.
He said the most common obstructions cleared in Metro Manila included illegally-parked vehicles, sidewalk vendors, street dwellers, and village outposts.
He prodded all mayors nationwide to sustain the clearing of roads for the benefit of the public.
He said the real test of the performance of the local chief executives lay in their consistency of maintaining the cleared roads beyond the Sept. 29 deadline with the support of the police and the villages.
Año said 43.3 percent of the local government units nationwide had conducted road-clearing operations in their respective localities.
Citing data from the DILG’s Bureau of Local Government Supervision, Año said 13 local government units had ordinances on road clearing operations while four others, including the cities of Makati, Malabon, San Juan, and Pateros, had already issued Executive Orders and established task forces to conduct road-clearing operations.