Bill seeks to ban LGUs from designating roads as parking, business spaces
A bill banning local government units from designating public roads as parking spaces, business stalls, or public transport terminals has been filed in the House of Representatives.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Bernadette Barbers proposed her House Bill 933, which also prohibits the use of public roads for parking, business, public utility terminals, and any other activity that tends to impede the free flow of traffic without a permit from the proper authorities.
The same bill provides that authorities can only issue permits for the use of public roads during temporary activities.
'It is no secret that urban areas have become so congested that people tend to disregard order and do things convenient to them," Barbers said in her explanatory note.
"This bill seeks to regulate the use of sidewalks and public roads, which are meant for the utilization and enjoyment of the general public for the purpose for which they were built,' he added.
Barbers said small businesses have used and occupied sidewalks, which endangers pedestrians, while residents who do not have parking spaces in their houses use the streets for their parking lots.
She said business establishments that do not have ample parking spaces, on the other hand, use the roads as parking lots for their vehicles as well as their clients, clogging narrow roads and impeding the free flow of traffic.
Barbers said the proliferation of public utility terminals on public roads was also a chronic problem because public roads are not built for such purposes.
'It is a fact that the traffic congestion in urban areas results in economic losses amounting to billions of pesos yearly. Should these road obstructions be cleared, traffic flow will ease and a more robust economy will result,' Barbers said. –NB, GMA Integrated News
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