Mayor wants Session Road closure up to December

By Dexter A. See 

BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong requested the City Council to extend the closure of the ascending lane of Session road to allow concerned offices to have ample time to assess and evaluate the impact of the traffic experiment scheme to the people of the city.

In his letter dated Sept. 12 to the council, the city chief executive informed the city legislators the city government has received positive comments from residents and tourists with respect to the implementation of the temporary closure of the ascending lane of Session Road for four consecutive Sundays.

Earlier, the City Council passed Ordinance No. 65, series of 2019 approving the closure of the ascending lane of Session road to vehicular traffic for four Sundays upon approval subject to the explicit conditions.

Section 2 of the same ordinance states that the early termination or extension of the traffic experiment shall be determined by the City Mayor.

                The city mayor said enactment of the said ordinance is a concrete manifestation that through the joint efforts and cooperation of city officials, they can carry out together more effectively their good plans for a better Baguio.

Pursuant to Section 2 of the above ordinance, he sought the support of the City Council the necessity of extending until December 2019 the closure of the ascending lane of Session “road every Sunday.

He told members of the City Council that during the extension, if approved, concerned offices will be strictly abiding by the terms and conditions of the closure stated under the approved ordinance.

The city mayor signed Ordinance No. 65, series of 2019 on August 9, 2019 and was supposed to take effect after the conduct of a 2-week information education campaign to guide the residents and tourists alike on the implementation of the scheme.

The closure of the ascending lane of Session road started on August 18, 2019 and that the four Sundays was supposed to commence on September 8, 2019.

Among the conditions imposed by the ordinance include that the closure shall apply to the ascending lane of Session road beginning in the area fronting the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) up to the last pedestrian crossing fronting the Baguio Post Office from 6 am to 9 pm during Sundays; at the same time Upper and Lower Mabini Streets towards Harrison Road shall be open to vehicular traffic and the implementation of the said closure shall be pursuant to Section 2 of Ordinance No. 21, series of 2011 which provided for the guidelines in the conduct of traffic experiments in the city.

All traffic experiments shall be conducted for a period not exceeding six months.

Upon the lapse of the 6-month period and no ordinance is enacted, the traffic scheme will automatically revert to its status before the implementation of the experiment.