MANILA, Philippines — Among six regions that complied with nationwide road clearing operations, Calabarzon (Region IV-A) had the most cities that passed the Department of Interior and Local Government's assessment and validation ratings updated as of Tuesday.
DILG assessed local government units' compliance with President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to eliminate road obstructions and reclaim space for the public.
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Consisting of 142 cities in the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon; Region IV-A scored 50 high compliance ratings, 73 medium ratings, and 19 low compliance ratings.
The cities with low compliance ratings are Trece Martires City and Alfonso in Cavite; Calauan, Los Baños, Lumban, Pagsanjan, and Victoria in Laguna province; Lipa City, Malvar, Nasugbu, and Talisay in Batangas province; Angono and Morong in Rizal province; and Burdeos, Catanauan, Infanta, Polilio, San Andres, and San Francisco in Quezon province.
The other five regions with a 100% compliance rating are the National Capital Region, Cagayan Valley (Region II), Western Visayas (Region VI), Soccsksargen (Region XII), and Caraga (Region XIII).
NCR had the highest percentage of high compliance ratings at 71%, or 12 out of its total 17 cities receiving a high rating.
In terms of count, Cagayan Valley had the most high-compliance ratings overall. Fifty-four of its 93 cities received a high compliance rating.
Road clearing purpose
Among the obstructions removed in road clearing operations are illegally parked vehicles, street vendors, business establishments occupying road portions and illegal public transport terminals.
Indicators used for assessing the compliance of LGUs in Metro Manila were ordinances issued, use of a road inventory plan, displacement strategies, rehabilitation efforts and direct on-ground clearing operations, lawyer Odilon Luis Pasaraba of the DILG-Bureau of Local Government Supervision said in a release.
The DILG Memorandum Circular 2019-121 issued in July gave LGU chief-executives a 60-day compliance period to clear public roads used for commercial reasons or blocked by illegal structures and construction.
The memorandum was prompted by Duterte, who in his fourth State of the Nation Address, made the directive. It was issued a week after the SONA.