“Tell the guards to open up the gates!”

It’s not the coronation scene from Frozen, the award-winning animated film from Walt Disney. But this line came from Queen Elsa when she ordered for the opening of Arendelle’s castle gates.

And it about sums up the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board’s (HLURB) plan to open Subdivisions for motorists for free. This is part of the agency’s efforts to ease the severe traffic congestion in the country.

With the on-going re-blocking project of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), traffic situation has become more unbearable. As a result, HLURB is coming up with different strategies and one of their options is an Alternate Route.

Vice President and HLURB Chair Jejomar Binay announced that they are looking into this plan since it is within their power to order Gated Communities for such allowances if needed.

Discussions with other stakeholders are already in motion, Binay said.

In this article, he also mentioned that they are looking into regulating the fees charged by subdivisions to motorists.

“That is one thing that the HLURB is studying right now. For example, someone is having a construction of their house and trucks carrying sand and other construction materials are making a delivery to the Village, thousands are being paid for that. We are looking on how to regulate the exorbitant fees in subdivisions,” Binay stressed.

History repeating itself and House Bill 3806

It wasn’t the first time that the solution to open up gated communities has been thought of and implemented. Much like in 2000, then chair of MMDA Binay also used this strategy to alleviate the worsening traffic condition in the metro. Dasmariñas Village was one of the subdivisions which opened their roads temporarily for motorists.

And just recently, two solons also showed interest in using private subdivision roads as alternate route. Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and Abante Mindanao Rep. Maximo Rodriguez Jr. filed House Bill 3806. It aims to enforce gated communities to open one of their roads for public use. The Department of Public Work and Highways will determine which subdivisions will be included.

Another provision states that in order to help in the upkeep of village roads, a fee of not more than PHP 5 per vehicle or an annual fee that should not exceed PHP 300 could be collected from vehicles that will use these roads.

Is this an aye or nay for you?

Author Bio:

Zipporah Antonio currently works as a Content Writer for HousingInteractive Inc. You can reach her at [email protected]. You can also add her in Google+: +Zipporah Antonio.