After Rizal Avenue, Quezon Boulevard is the next no-parking zone in Manila.
Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada said any illegally parked vehicles would be immediately towed away.
“Quezon Boulevard is a vital thoroughfare leading to Quiapo Church. For the convenience of the Nazarene devotees, as well as the thousands of people doing business in Quiapo, I have decided to also ban parking along this critical highway,” Estrada said.
“All it’ll take from them is a little discipline. We need to get the cooperation of everybody if we want to bring back order in our streets,” he added.
Estrada ordered Dennis Alcoreza, chief of the Manila Traffic and Parking Bureau, to enforce the ban.
Alcoreza formed Task Force Quezon Boulevard to go after motorists that park along the roadway and the barkers who collect illegal parking fees.
Originally built in 1939 as a six- to 10-lane road, Quezon Boulevard starts from Lerma Street in Sampaloc and stretches up to Quezon Bridge and Palanca Street.
It passes through Manila’s major landmarks such as Quiapo Church, Plaza Miranda, Quinta Market, and the popular Raon Street, dubbed as the country’s “electronics capital.”
Alcoreza called on barangay officials to refrain from tolerating illegal parking by collecting fees from vehicle owners.
He said he has received reports that some barangay officials in the city are working in cahoots with Tokagawa Global Corp., a private firm that won a questionable parking management contract with former Manila mayor Afredo Lim.
“We even heard that some barangays and Tokagawa have been fighting over their parking fee collections,” Alcoreza said.
The 25-year deal that Estrada wants nullified allows Tokagawa to charge parking fees to motorists in designated areas. But only 20 percent of the proceeds go to the city, a scheme that the Commission on Audit said was “disadvantageous” to the government.
During a clearing operation in Rizal Avenue on September 15, 30 tricycles, five motorcycles, 15 light vehicles and two “kuligligs” or motorized pedicabs were towed away by MTPB traffic enforcers.