MMC to discuss changing mall hours to ease traffic

Heavy traffic along Edsa in Pasay City. (File photo by RICHARD REYES / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila Council (MMC) President Francis Zamora said on Friday he would suggest adjusting mall hours to ease the traffic in the metropolis.

“I will relay it to the body. These are the things we can discuss,” Zamora, who is the mayor of San Juan City said in an interview over radio dwPM, suggesting the adjustment of mall hours in Metro Manila.

Zamora added that such adjustments, typically done every Christmas season to ease traffic, were a “good suggestion.”

“As for the [suggestion that] mall hours should not be concurrent with rush hour or that there should be standard operating hours of malls, I will suggest that when we talk again at the Metro Manila Council,” Zamora said in Filipino.

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The recommendation was made as several adjustments were made to tackle the worsening traffic in the National Capital Region.

On Thursday, several local government units implemented the new 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. work schedule so that “peak hours will be spread out,” according to Romando Artes, chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

MMC, composed of 17 mayors from 16 cities and one municipality, is the policy-making body of the MMDA.