Wednesday, December 06, 2006 Road closures start Sunday
MOTORISTS and commuters thinking of an easy drive this Sunday are in for a disappointment.
Road closures for the Asean summit will start on Sunday instead of Monday, Dec. 11, because heads of state and their delegations will already be arriving that time.
“Be prepared for sporadic, short closures, especially of the ceremonial route,” said Cebu city Councilor Sylvan Jakosalem.
The route includes Veterans Drive, Salinas Drive, Juan Luna Ave. and Sergio Osmeña Ave. in Cebu City, which leads to the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Marco Polo Plaza Hotel.
Jakosalem, chairman of the City Council committee on transportation, said no time was specified for the road closures since it will depend on when the dignitaries will arrive.
And since the Asean summit opening ceremony is at 6 p.m., the ceremonial route will surely be closed even before that time, he said.
Specifically, those going to the Carmelite monastery or the Mabolo Parish Church will be affected.
“There will be no parking along the entire ceremonial route from Dec. 10 to 14. Tow trucks will be on standby,” he said.
Also, Jakosalem said German car maker BMW just shipped in eight vehicles that the company will lend to the Philippine Government for the Asean delegates’ use.
He said the eight BMW 760li, worth at least P40 million each, arrived in Cebu City last Monday.
The vehicles, assessed as “level seven security”, or cars with the highest security features, will be sent back to Germany after the summit.
At the 888 News Forum yesterday morning, Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Silverio Alarcio Jr. said ceremonial routes will be closed for around one hour only during the summit.
The roads will be closed only when the dignitaries are on their way to the summit venues or their hotels.
Alarcio said they originally intended to close the ceremonial routes for two hours every time the convoy passes through.
But after last Friday’s dry run, they realized the travel time of the convoys could be limited to less than an hour.
This means that the roads will remain closed to vehicular traffic for only one hour, or while the convoys are passing through.
Alarcio said that in between gaps or when there are no dignitaries on the road, the ceremonial routes will immediately be opened to allow vehicles to cross the intersections.
He said they have identified some portions of the ceremonial routes that need to be opened during a “lull” in order to ease traffic in the area.
The areas that need to be opened include the Salinas Drive, starting from Marco Polo Plaza Hotel to J.Y. Square in Lahug.
Meanwhile, Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia Victoriano Lecaros, also the official spokesman for the 12th Asean summit, said the Philippines is even liberal with road closures.
Other countries that previously hosted the summit closed their roads for weeks prior to the event in order to “sanitize” the area.
The dry run last Friday turned out to be “generally successful” but organizers warned the public to brace for worse traffic during the summit from Dec. 10 to Dec. 14.
Among the traffic chokepoints observed during the dry run were Ibo in Lapu-Lapu City, the first Mandaue-Mactan bridge, Plaridel St., the Mandaue City Sports Complex and SM City Cebu.
In Cebu City, traffic flow was heavy at the Salinas Drive and Archbishop Reyes Ave. junction.
Since the four-day holiday covers only government agencies and all schools, private workers in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu will be commuting during the summit.
Jakosalem also said yesterday that the 57 BMW 520d and 20 more BMW 730li units, which were also lent for the summit, would be offered at discounted prices to interested buyers after the gathering.
Jakosalem said he was told that the 520d, which costs P4.1 million per unit, will be offered at P3.45 million each. The 730li, pegged at P7.45 million, will be sold for only P5.7 million each.
He said a BMW Cebu official told him that interested buyers already reserved all vehicles to be purchased after the summit.
BMW offered to lend vehicles for free to the government as its way of helping the country in the hosting of the summit.
But either an overzealous or plainly curious Presidential Security Group personnel caused one of the eight 760li to shut down after triggering the unit’s fire extinguisher.
“They have to fly in a specialist from Germany tomorrow to inspect the vehicle and make it run again,” the councilor said yesterday. (RHM/JST)
