Mandaue traffic head: Lack of coordination in Paknaan road closure causes traffic

LACK of proper coordination in the implementation of road closure is causing heavy traffic in Barangay Pakna-an, Traffic Enforcer Agency of Mandaue (TEAM) head Glenn Antigua said yesterday.

Antigua said he did not receive an earlier notification from the barangay nor from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) regarding the road closure.

“Walay coordination. Wala ta kapangandam og unsay traffic scheme atong gamiton (There’s no coordination. We weren’t able to prepare what traffic scheme to apply),” Antigua said.

He said he asked Paknaan barangay captain Malaquias Soco about the timeframe of the project after receiving several complaints from motorists, but Soco told him that he did not know.

Unlike the road projects in barangays Labogon, Cubacub and Tawasan, Antigua said he was informed before the road closure was imposed and was given a timeframe of the projects.

Antigua said that truck drivers were complaining about the road closure in Barangay Paknaan, where there is also a truck ban ordinance. The tricycle drivers plying the affected road in Paknaan were also complaining that they have very limited routes.

Antigua said he would ask Mayor Gabriel Luis “Luigi” Quisumbing to allow tricycles to take the north road.

“Gikan sa Pacific Mall, mo u-turn sila sa Citi Hardware. Wa man juy lain ka agian. Ma-hamper ang mga residente. Wa silay kasakyan (From the Pacific Mall, they (tricycle drivers) would make a u-turn along Citi Hardware. There is no other road to take. This would hamper the residents. They couldn’t find public utility vehicles,” Antigua said.

Meanwhile, Antigua said the road repair on Plaridel Street is not causing heavy traffic so far.

He said they opened the P. Burgos Street behind the Pacific Mall as an alternative road for tricycles and other motorists to decongest the traffic. /USJ-R Intern Dafne N. Wenceslao