Heavy traffic in south as Alay Lakad passes SRP

Students in a drum and bugle corps join the 2014 Alay Lakad parade in its new route through the South Road Properties. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Traffic congestion was felt in the southern corridor of Cebu City with the closure of the south-bound lane of the South Coastal Road in order to give way to the annual Alay Lakad activity yesterday afternoon.

Traffic flow started to normalize when the parade which started at the San Pedro Calungsod Shrine at the South Road Properties (SRP) reached their convergence area at the Senior Citizens Park fronting City Hall’s executive building at 4 p.m. for a short program.

It was the first time  the Alay Lakad parade was held at the SRP.

It was Citom’s idea to transfer it to the SRP to reduce the  impact on traffic, said  Citom executive director Rafael Yap.

Alay Lakad executive director Steve Norman Tan said more than 15,000 participants joined the fund raising actvitiy.

Scholars

“So far we’ve raised more than P200,000 initially for this 40th year of Alay Akad. This is for  the benefit of  30 scholars who are  in our scholarship program,” Tan said.
Most of the scholars are  in high school. Six are  in elementary school and two are college students.

The annual benefit walkathon ch is participated by the city government, students, private and government sector partners.“We are open to to anyone who wants to partner with us and to help the young to pursue their studies,” he said.

Yesterday, Citom closed the  southbound lane of the SRP tunnel  to vehicles starting 12 noon.
Another SRP entrance  near City Hall was also closed to vehicular traffic.

Vehicles headed for Talisay City and other parts of southern Cebu were diverted to Natalio Bacalso Avenue,  causing congestion in the area.