Bokawkan LI jeepney route returned

TRAFFIC JAM -- This area along Marcos Highway reaching up to the flyover in Baguio was the object of complaints due asphalt overlaying along the paved road. -- Redjie Mekvic Cawis

By Isagani S. Liporada

BAGUIO CITY – Baguio mayor Mauricio Domogan last week announced the old La Trinidad – Bokawkan route shall be opened using a ‘pick and go’ strategy beginning July 26.

During the Ugnayan presscon hosted by DZEQ ‘Radio ng Bayan’, July 21, Domogan said bottom line for the reversion to the old traffic scheme was public convenience of passengers from the city’s next door neighbor.

“Students and wage earners from La Trinidad have been greatly inconvenienced already,” he said. “They have been constrained to having two or three rides to reach their destinations when these could be reduced without sacrificing other valid concerns against the reinstitution of the route. I have been meeting with leaders of the seven LT trunklines and they have basically agreed to terms laid down by the city committee concerned.”

Meanwhile, City Council Public Utilities, Transportation and Traffic Committee chair Nicasio Aliping in a separate interview meanwhile said, “We are opening the old route merely as an experiment.”

He added the jeepneys concerned shall be closely monitored during two weeks of experimentation using an alternating “odd-even” plate number scheme to reduce the volume of vehicles plying the route.

“On top of this,” he added, “at no time shall affected PUV’s be allowed to park along Chuntug St. which earned the ire of local businessmen in the area.”

Domogan for his part added members of the LT rides shall be tasked to maintain cleanliness in the Chuntug pickup point at all times.

He appealed to momma lovers to exercise self-restraint in order not to paint the roads and gutters red.

Domogan also asked members of the LT-bound vehicles to police passengers and their ranks to prevent diseases caused by indiscriminate urinating of males in the area.