This Week in Metro Manila (November 21 to 27, 2016)

The metro will experience a fairly well weather this week with a sunny to cloudy skies to rule the coming days. Spots of showers in the morning are still to be expected, thus bringing an umbrella as a precaution will be best. The nights on the other hand will be clear and can be a bit cloudy, with few possibilities of showers.

Every third week of November, National Consciousness Week Against Counterfeit Medicines is celebrated to raise awareness to the public about the dangers of counterfeit medicines.

Counterfeit medicines can be medicines with the correct ingredients but provided in incorrect amounts, thus affecting its effectiveness and safety to the user. It can also refer to medicinal products with deliberate incorrect labeling; lack of trademark, trade name, or identification or imprint, and unauthorized repackagingto name a few as wellas those unregistered imported products being sold.

The Food and Drug Administration leads the fight against counterfeit medicines by providing heavy penalties and sanctions to people and establishments found selling and manufacturing said products.

Check out our list of pharmacies and drug stores in the Beauty, Health, and Wellness Category of the ShoppersGuide Directory.

Inter-Agency Council on Traffic (I-ACT) continues to find new ways to ease traffic. For this week, I-ACT will open two government properties to become access roads to motorists.

The first one is Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, which motorists coming from EDSA-Santolan and Katipunan can use as diversion road from Monday to Friday, 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM. Motorists only need to secure an access sticker so they can enter the property. Security access stickers can be claimed in the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) headquarters in Makati City by submitting the Certificate of Registration (CR) and Official Receipt (OR) of the vehicle and a picture of the registered owner of the vehicle, and then paying a fee for the sticker. The property will be open for public access until January 15, 2017.

The other property is the Office of Transportation Security (OTS) on Andrews Avenue and Tramo in Pasay. MMDA plans to remove a wall in the area to serve as access road to motorists going to Roxas Boulevard. This will also lessen the buildup of traffic in EDSA, especially the vehicles turning to Domestic Road going to Roxas Boulevard.

I-Act also plans to open five more military camps and another access road in Makati in the coming weeks to continue to improve the traffic in the metro especially with the rush of the upcoming holiday season.

Read: Newly Opened Auto Shops that Will Rev up Interest This Year

Manila City Mayor Joseph Estrada continues his plans of decongesting Manila city of traffic by removing the yearly night market in Divisoria this coming holiday season. Although the night market that started way back 2013 originally aimed to help vendors who were affected by the clearing operations during daytime, the city government now realizes that it does more harm than good to the city’s traffic situation.

With the traffic expected to worsen this upcoming Christmas, Estrada hopes to decongest the streets affected by the yearly event specifically the streets of Recto Avenue from Abad Santos to Juan Luna.

Although a lot of vendors will be affected by the move, Estrada deemed it necessary to stop the traditional night market not just to improve the flow of traffic in the affected streets but also to stop any illegal vendor who might take advantage of the season.

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

Philippine Bike Expo 2016 is happening this November 26 and 27 at the SMX Convention Center. Bikers will enjoy this two-day event as bike enthusiasts and traders all over the country will gather to promote the newest innovation and products in the biking industry. The event will also include shows and exhibitions, with Super Kids and Kenny Belaey as some of its featured performer.

Ticket price starts at PhP120 for one-day pass and PhP200 for two-day pass. Tickets will also be sold on site for PhP150.

Check out our list of bike and bike accessory stores in the Specialty Goods Category of the ShoppersGuide Directory.