Saturday, January 13, 2007 Number coding suspended until May 2
ACTING Baguio City Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. has issued Administrative Order (AO) 2 suspending the traffic number coding scheme from Jan. 8 to May 2.
The issuance of AO 2 came on the heels of Bautista's pronouncement that he is pushing for an amendment or possible repeal of the number coding scheme. Moves are being done for the City Council's approval, he added.
Educational and tourism activities abound in this city for this month and the next months, including the nationwide press conference where 5,000 delegates are expected to attend, and another activity by the Southeast Center for Training and Development (SCTD) on January 27-28, as foreign and local delegates are awaited.
Bautista said the annual Baguio Flower Festival (BFF) in February also abound with tourism-oriented activities, thus the extended suspension. The month-long festival was tentatively slated with numerous activities mostly during the four weekends of February, and may stretch up to March 4.
Activities include the floral boat and float, band and street dancing parade, market encounter, concerts, singing contests, fashion show, bridal shows, outdoor and indoor sports competitions, food presentations, cultural presentations and decorations, and other crowd-drawing entertainment events.
The graduation and homecoming events of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) and other schools and universities, Holy Week and Araw ng Kagitingan in April, and Labor Day on May 1 were some of the activities cited in the order where local and foreign tourists are expected to flock to the city.
Bautista earlier observed that with the suspension, tourists increased greatly, and this has proven very advantageous to the business sector. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, during her visit to Baguio last month, noted and congratulated him for this.
The move for the possible repeal is seen as a big boost to the tourism industry, and to the earnings of the city as a whole, he added.
The number coding scheme was approved in 2003 to lessen traffic within the central business district (CBD) and adjoining areas, and further amended, thus exemptions have applied only to tourist buses, government-owned vehicles, mail delivery vehicles, armored bank cars for money transfer, emergency vehicles, water delivery trucks during fire control, public utility vehicles for emergency repairs, school services ferrying students during designated hours.
All vehicles have been prohibited to operate within the number coding scheme with the given schedules based on the last number of their license plates: 1 and 2, Monday; 3 and 4, Tuesday; 5 and 6, Wednesday; 7 and 8, Thursday; 9 and 0, Friday. However, the traffic number coding suspension applies only to private vehicles. (JF)
