NAGA CITY (28 May)-- A TRAFFIC EXPERIMENTATION being implemented by the Robredo Administration's Public Safety Office (PSO) along Panganiban Drive, a major thoroughfare that led to the old Naga commercial district, has now become a major concern to many affected business establishments, whose owners are saying the "experimental traffic scheme" will only favor the newly opened "SM City Naga" once ratified as an ordinance.
A former official of the influential Cam. Sur Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who requested anonymity, aired his opposition to the traffic scheme at Panganiban Drive, after a dialogue with 30 other shop-owners based in the said avenue.
The former Chamber official said the experimental traffic had required a number coding for vehicles along Panganiban Drive with barriers having been installed along the said avenue; moreover, a "one-way" traffic has been implemented on adjacent road tributaries resulting to the channeling of all vehicles into the SM-complex.
He said that the City's traffic system suggests that "all roads lead to Shoemart" with recently installed new road signs that point the way to the giant mall, and neglects other important City routes vital to take passengers to the previously developed business district.
Shop-owners along Panganiban Drive claimed a hamburger food-chain dropped sales by about P30,000 a day after the traffic rerouting, while hardwares and a water-station also complained of difficulty in deliveries; in addition, a hospital in the area is reported to have had difficulty facilitating emergencies.
No protection
Former Naga City police chief and now City Councilor Jose Tuazon said that although the entry of SM into Naga is a major development in the urbanization of the City, other mall-owners should also be protected by Robredo's Administration.
He noted that in the City government's attempt to secure a new traffic system along Panganiban Drive to facilitate the route to "SM City," the proposed number-coding for vehicles has already decongested the said route by 1/3 of its traffic volume.
Nonetheless, Tuazon told Lito Del Rosario, chief of the City's Public Safety Office (PSO) during the City Council's session on Tuesday (May 26) that it was not necessary to make "a one way" of other tributaries that lead to Panganiban Drive.
Tuazon, who heads the City Council Committee on Peace and Order and Concern on City properties, bared that last year he urgently asked Naga Mayor Jesse Robredo for the allocation of Php 200,000 for a Rapid Traffic Study and recommendation by experts in the University of the Philippines (UP) for Naga's traffic-condition.
But Tuazon said his request was denied; he stressed that Naga's traffic scheme currently being adopted by the PSO, "is not from the study of experts, but merely experimental."
In the meantime, PSO chief Del Rosario was reported to have said the experimental traffic along Panganiban Drive is being extended for another 15-days to observe its effect on the opening of classes in June. (SONNY SALES)