Misplaced Pink Fences
Jan 11 2006 Wed
11:51 am PHT
I realized something when I was going home last night. On the end of the southbound side of Coastal Road there stands a line of MMDA pink fences separating the traffic between those vehicles headed towards Cavite and those pushing towards Las Piñas.
While many people despise Bayani’s pink fences, especially those along EDSA, for Las Piñeros, those particular fences are a blessing since the traffic going to Cavite is hell while the flow going to our city is almost always green and go. So the pink fences provide us a free passage; otherwise the Cavite-bound vehicles will occupy the whole width of the highway and we’d slog through the traffic standstill until the fork in the road.
Anyway, what I realized is that those pink fences are not in Metro Manila. They’re in Barangay Zapote V, Bacoor, Cavite. (To get to Las Piñas from Coastal Road, you enter Cavite for a short while.) Those pink fences should not be there; MMDA has no jurisdiction outside of Metro Manila. (The Makati mayor might cite this gleefully as a case of the MMDA chairman overstepping his bounds.)
Then again, it’s entirely possible that since Coastal Road is a National Highway, the local government has no jurisdiction over it and since MMDA is directly under the Office of the President, MMDA’s actions is not really illegal. A more probably explanation is that MMDA coordinated with the municipal government of Bacoor or the barangay of Zapote V.
I’m such a bore, aren’t I?

Comments
Comment times are in Philippine time (+0800).
1
On 12:07 p.m., 11 Jan 2006, ramil wrote:
hehe. oo. go find something to do!
2
On 9:03 p.m., 11 Jan 2006, seav wrote:
Speaking of something to do, how about doing me a favor and update your link to my blog (gotta build up the PR again).
3
On 2:56 a.m., 16 Jan 2006, Migs wrote:
“MMDA” may very well be “Mega Manila” or “Greater Manila Area” now.. thus my comment in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Metro_Manil…
4
On 6:09 p.m., 17 Jan 2006, seav wrote:
Ah, but MMDA is a legal entity and its charter says that it should only have jurisdiction over Metropolitan Manila, which by law refers to the 17 cities and municipalities of the region. MMDA cannot do anything outside the metropolis, legally speaking.
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