MMDA not keen on traffic-easing measures for holiday season

A scheme called “congestion pricing” is being studied as a way to ease traffic flow on the country’s busiest highway. —NINO JESUS ORBETA

Patience will be a must this holiday season for shoppers.

As policemen stepped up their visibility in malls with the start of the “ber” months, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) asked the public to schedule their trips to shopping centers in the absence of new traffic-easing measures to be implemented for the holiday season.

“I am giving instructions to my subordinate commanders to maximize their police presence because the economic activity is more robust during the ‘ber’ months. People spend. Everybody wants to enjoy. Everybody wants to feel the spirit of Christmas and criminals take advantage of that,” Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa said on Monday.

De la Rosa acknowledged that more crimes take place during the Christmas season because criminals know that “people have money.”

Meanwhile, Jojo Garcia, MMDA assistant general manager for planning, said on Monday that with different malls located in every city in the metropolis, shoppers should just go to the establishments nearest to them to prevent the worsening of traffic flow during the holidays.

“Let’s schedule [our visit to the malls]. What we are saying is that if you’re from Manila, don’t go to Quezon City just to shop,” Garcia told reporters.

While he acknowledged that they could not dictate on the public’s buying habits, especially given the limited budget of most shoppers, what they were asking for was everyone’s cooperation.

Within the month, Garcia said they would meet with mall operators to discuss how they could deal with the traffic problem during the holidays. He added that they would ask mall operators to inform the MMDA of an upcoming sale three days before to help them better manage traffic.

Last year, the MMDA implemented the “no-window hours” policy to address congestion during the holidays. This year, Garcia said they would not introduce any volume reduction measure, noting that this would prove to be a challenge given that “our mass transportation [system wasn’t] that effective yet.” — Jovic Yee, With a report from Nikko Dizon