This Week in Metro Manila (October 10 to 16, 2016)

This weeks’ weather will go from rainy to sunny. The first half of the week will have consistent rains and thunderstorms in the morning coupled with cloudiness and few spots of thunderstorms at night. An early morning commute would be best to make allowances for any traffic. The remainder of the week will be a little bit better with light showers to sunshine in the morning and mostly cloudy weather at night.

After recording over 400 cases of Chikungunya in Indang Cavite, the Department of Health (DOH) pushes the public to do the 4S to prevent the spread of the disease. Chikungunya is a disease carried out by mosquitoes that brings joint pain, fever, nausea, fatigue, and rash.

The 4S consists of Search and destroy, Self-protection measures, Seeking early consultation, and Saying no to indiscriminate fogging.

DOH also stresses that by doing the 4S the public also helps prevent other diseases that are carried out by mosquitos like dengue and the zika virus.

Due to the strong opposition of the residents of Parañaque, City Mayor Edwin Olivarez decided to move the implementation of the number coding scheme in its major highways to next month, November 3.

Residents complained of the “no window hour,” in which cars in coding schemes for a particular day wouldn’t be able to use the major highways in Paranaque from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. The city officials now moved it to 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM and 4:00 AM to 7:00 PM only.

The roads that would be affected by the scheme are Dr. A. Santos Avenue or Sucat Ave.; Quirino Avenue; Ninoy Aquino Ave., road leading to Ninoy Aquino International Airport; Doña Soldedad Road; East Service Road; and West Service Road.

Six hundred and ten vendors are returning to Divisoria side streets as permitted by the Mayor of the City, Joseph Estrada. The streets that will be affected include Tabora, Carmen Planas, Juan Luna, Sto. Cristo, and Ilaya to name a few.

Estrada announced that he is allowing the return for the vendors to have a source of income since most of them lost their businesses during the clearing operations in the city. The City’s officials will still make sure that all the vendors that are allowed to return has secured their permit to operate, are legal residents of Manila, and will not obstruct any major highways.

Read: Going Underground: Event Souvenir Finds Inside 168 Shopping Mall

In an effort to ease up the traffic situation in Metro Manila, in particular, during the coming holiday season, the Interagency Council on Traffic (I-ACT) and mall operators in the metro has agreed that mall sales should only be conducted during weekends.

The scheme which will reduce weekend sales to only two days, or Saturday and Sunday, will start on October 21 and is set to end by January 9 of next year. Vehicles queuing to enter in malls’ parking spaces will also no longer be allowed to stay in the road while in line. These measures aim to prevent mall sales from affecting and slowing down traffic in Edsa highway, where 16 major malls are located.

Other arrangements to be discussed by I-ACT and mall officers in their succeeding meetings include scheduling product deliveries to malls through delivery trucks during 12:00 AM to 5:00 AM only as well as late-opening and late-closing time which is 11:00 AM to 11:00 PM.

Animax Carnival Philippines 2016 will happen this week in October 15 to 16 at the SMX Convention Center. Anime fans will be treated with exhibits, performances from their favorite Japanese artists, and even a chance for a meet-and-greet. There will be a cosplay competition among participants too, so expect a fun and colorful weekend with your fellow anime lovers. Ticket starts at PhP299.