Paranaque to have Friendship Route? See plans here

Parañaque City Mayor Edwin L. Olivarez has ordered the creation of a committee to study the proposed opening and interconnection of roads inside private subdivisions to serve as a “Friendship Route” to help ease traffic congestion in the city.

Mayor Olivarez himself brought up the idea of a Friendship Route, which will allow motorists access to subdivision roads, during the Parañaque City Traffic Summit held last week at the Don Bosco Barangay Gymnasium in an effort to find solutions to the worsening traffic condition that has been affecting both residents and businessmen in the city.

“We need to look at all the possible alternatives, including the creation of a Friendship Route and the deployment of more traffic enforcers in addition to the various measures that we have already put in place to ease the traffic burden on our constituents,” the mayor said during the summit.

Last Monday, September 15, Olivarez issued Executive Order No. 14-036 Series of 2014 which created a committee that will determine which subdivision roads shall be opened to the public to establish the Friendship Route as well as to formulate the rules and regulations concerning its implementation.

He named City Administrator Fernando Soriano as committee chairman and City Legal Officer Atty. Rommel Frias as vice chairman, while its members are Atty. Lino Sandil, the City Council Secretary, Mr. Teodoro Barandino, head of the Parañaque Traffic Management Office, as well as representatives from the City Engineer’s Office, the local police, the homeowners’ association, and a non-government organization.

The creation of the committee is embodied in an earlier law passed by the Sangguniang Panlungsod in August 2000, Ordinance No. 0015 (672), which is called “An Ordinance Opening Roads in Subdivisions with Linkages to Major Thoroughfares of the City to the Public, When Deemed Necessary”.

Olivarez said the city government is open to the idea of assuming the responsibility of maintaining private roads that will be part of the Friendship Route, and that the committee will also study the possibility of providing non-fiscal incentives to homeowners’ associations that will allow the use of their subdivision roads.