Cebu Organizers Favor Holidays over Number-Coding Plan for APEC Cebu

Local government executives and traffic enforcement heads rejected a number-coding scheme in favor of a holiday declaration for certain days with the heaviest volume of delegates during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) #APEC2015 meetings in Cebu.

Cebu Gov. Hilario “Junjun” Davide III said they still have to identify which days to declare as holidays and get clearance from the National Government.

“I don’t know where the number-coding proposal came from but I don’t think it will work. It will just add confusion,” Davide added during a meeting on #APEC2015 #APECCebu preparations.

It will be difficult to determine the volume of vehicles taken off the streets under a number-coding scheme, according to Land Transportation Office (LTO) 7 Director Arnel Tancinco, who also disagreed with the suggestion.

He said the main recourse is to provide a traffic situation similar to Saturdays and Sundays in Cebu and the best way to do this is declare a holiday.

Holidays will most likely be declared during the Third Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM3), which will have the highest concentration of delegates, on September 4 or thereabouts, cited Cebu organizing committee consultant Lito Maderazo.

Atty. Rafael Christopher Yap, executive director of the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (CITOM) board, agreed that a number-coding scheme during the APEC meetings in Cebu is not viable.

He said that while a holiday declaration would be helpful, they are nevertheless confident that their traffic plan would allow them to manage the heavy vehicle flow during the APEC meetings in Cebu from August to October. InnoPub Media

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