Finally, barangay officials in the province have been warned that setting up barricades in the middle of highways and roads ostensibly to slow down vehicles is illegal.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) regional office has ruled that road barriers put up by barangays in front of public schools and churches situated on the highways are considered hazardous obstructions and, therefore, illegal.

DPWH Regional Director Fidel Ginez, in a letter to the Police Station in Calasiao on February 4, 2009, sought the removal of the road barriers set up along the highway under its jurisdiction in violation of the provision of Section 23, Presidential Decree No. 17, known as the Revised Philippine Highway Act.

The provision states: “It shall be unlawful for any person to usurp any portion of the right-of-way, to convert any part of any public highway, bridge, wharf or trail to his own private use or to obstruct the same in any manner.”

Earlier, Regional Trial Court Judge Ulysses Butuyan asked for the dismantling of these road barriers that he said, are not being removed even when school hours are finished. He warned barangay chairmen that they can be held criminally liable if vehicular accident occurs owing to the barricades.

Judge Butuyan asked the provincial police to enforce the law and prevent road accidents.

Complaining motorists have suggested that warning signs some 50 meters away, about presence of schools or churches should suffice to slow down motorists.

Gines, in charge of the Pangasinan Sub-District Engineering Office in Calasiao, also cited Department Order No. 52, series of 2003 of the DPWH that also prohibits highway obstructions.

Gines’s directive was in fact a response to the a letter of one Rogelio Ducusin who complained about illegal sidewalk vendors along the De Venecia Highway from Regency Hotel up to the National Census and Statistics Office.—LM

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