No more blocking of highways, soon

The Davao City Council will enact an ordinance that prohibits blocking of highways.

City Councilor Maria Belen Acosta proposed that the prohibition covers stalling of vehicles, mobile street vending, concerted group activities like rallies, loading or unloading, setting up of barricades and other similar acts that would cause delay to the public.

Each person violating the ordinance will be penalized with P5,000 and/or imprisonment of not less than six months.

“We are not prohibiting rallies, but we are prohibiting the action of blocking the highways [and delay some passengers],” Vice Mayor Bernard Al-ag said yesterday, November 6, 2018, during the Pulong-Pulong ni Pulong (PPP) at the Sangguniang Panlungsod, adding that the ordinance is aimed to avoid traffic congestion and public inconvenience.

The scope of the ordinance will be from Panacan Bridge to the junction of Davao Agusan National Highway and Carlos P. Garcia National Highway, but Alag said that he will propose for the ordinance to be applied in the whole city.

For the past weeks, several groups of rallyists have blocked city streets and highways, like the incident in Lasang last month where protesters blocked the road that resulted to several complaints from the affected individuals.