60 buses parked on bridge draw Leni rallyers’ ire

Miting de Avance of Vice President Leni Robredo on Saturday, May 7 on Ayala Avenue in Makati. (VP Leni Media Bureau)

MANILA, Philippines — The Mandaluyong City government denied having a hand in the bottleneck caused by the long line of buses that were parked for hours on Saturday morning on the Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge, which supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo suspected as a deliberate move to choke a major route leading to her “miting de avance” on Ayala Avenue.

The illegally parked vehicles made the bridge virtually impassable just as Robredo’s supporters were starting to converge, both in vehicles or on foot, at the rally site. Jimmy Isidro, chief of staff of Mandaluyong Mayor Menchie Abalos, said City Hall was “unaware” of the parked buses on Rockwell Bridge, as this span is also called.

Abalos’ husband, Benhur, resigned in February as chair of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to become the campaign manager presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

The city’s traffic bureau eventually cleared the bridge of the buses before noon. Isidro said “Our city traffic only responded to fix the bottleneck ….We were just there to address the issue. We did not block the bridge from supporters of any candidate.”

Mayor Abalos, in an ABS-CBN interview, denied speculation that the buses were intended to block the route going to Ayala via Makati Avenue.

A video posted on Facebook by Robredo supporter Ann Angala showed the empty buses lining Rockwell Bridge around 9:30 a.m.

Angala said there were at least 66 buses with signs that read “Mandaluyong Delegation for BBM-Sara” — referring to Marcos and his running mate Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.

But Mayor Abalos said: “I went around and saw the buses and there were many, but they did not block [the bridge].”

Mandaluyong police chief Col. Gauvin Mel Unos later confirmed that the buses were meant for Marcos supporters going to his own miting de avance in Parañaque City.

Romando Artes, the current chair of the MMDA, an agency tasked with managing traffic on major routes in the capital, did not immediately respond to the Inquirer’s request for comment.

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