The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) urged all local government units (LGUs) to place no-parking signs, no-tricycle allowed signs in national highways, as well as other traffic visual cues as part of Road Clearing 2.0 which will end on February 15.
DILG Undersecretary and Spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said once cleared of road obstructions, LGUs must install road signs in cleared areas as a visible warning so that people will not park or place obstructions in those roads again.
“The challenge to the road clearing program is sustainability, so we need more signs in our road network as visual cues to people not to violate our traffic laws and regulations again. This will also be a guide to law enforcement in maintaining law and order in our streets,” he said.
The DILG also directed the Philippine National Police (PNP) to closely assist the LGUs in their road-clearing operations especially if the LGU teams are facing stubborn residents.
Malaya also suggested to the LGUs to employ towing services so that vehicles obstructing roads and sidewalks can immediately be removed. “The municipal council can pass ordinances imposing reasonable penalties for violators,” he said.
The DILG’s Road Clearing Operation 2.0 (RCO 2.0) will end on February 15. It was extended by DILG OIC Bernardo Florece, Jr. in consideration of the need for LGUs to immediately prepare their local vaccination plans against COVID-19.
The DILG recently issued Memorandum No. 2021-007 tasking LGUs to come up with a local vaccination plan that contains the preparation of demand generation, risk communication plans, and conduct of early vaccine communication campaign to disseminate critical information on COVID-19 vaccination.
Malaya said that the February 15 deadline will stand and there will no longer be any extension. The DILG’s validation of LGUs’ compliance will be from February 16 to March 2, 2021.
“The deadline of the submission of all consolidated validation reports from the DILG regional offices will be one week after the end of the validation period or on March 9, 2021. We will not allow any modification in the report after submission,” he said.
In order to ensure close coordination on the submission of reports, Malaya said DILG regional offices must designate one road clearing focal person whose names should be submitted to the DILG Central Office by February 2, 2021.
Moreover, DILG Regional Offices (ROs) are also given until February 9 to submit to the DILG Central Office (CO) a directory of the members of all their validation teams (VTs) for each province, city, and municipality within their region.
VTs are composed of one representative each from the DILG, the PNP, Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), and civil society organization (CSO)/media.
In a recent memorandum prescribing the guidelines on the conduct of validation of LGU compliance on road clearing, Florece stressed the need to “cross-post” VTs to ensure the impartiality of the validation process. This means that during the validation activities, VTs must not be assigned in their original LGU of assignment or residence.
VTs for component cities and municipalities may be cross-posted within their respective provinces. VTs for provinces, highly urbanized cities (HUCs), and Independent Component Cities (ICCs) may be cross-posted within the region.
For LGUs under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) with a required partial implementation of road clearing, VTs will select three to 10 local roads within the LGU and assess whether road obstructions exist along or within the entirety of the selected roads. The schedule of the assessment will be determined solely by the VT. The LGUs’ compliance with the ban of tricycles on national highways shall also be checked.
Meanwhile, LGUs under Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) or Post-Quarantine Scenario will be validated according to their full implementation of road clearing operations. The seven components include the removal of road obstructions, enactment of an enabling ordinance, the conduct of an inventory of road obstructions, crafting and implementation of a displacement plan, rehabilitation of cleared roads, creation of a grievance mechanism, and compliance with the ban on tricycles along national roads. The LGUs’ compliance with the ban of tricycles on national highways shall also be checked.
“Inaasahan po ng DILG ang full cooperation ng LGUs para sa maayos na validation process. Within the validation period, LGUs shall submit reports detailing their compliance to the components of road clearing to the Validation Team. Strictly no report, no score,” Malaya said.
The DILG also enjoins LGUs to submit to the VTs as attachments to the reports, photographs, videos, presentations, reports, and other means of verifications (MOVs) that support their compliance.
(DILG-PR)
