A Unified No Parking Policy to be finalized for Metro Manila by September 1

Oftentimes, Google Maps or Waze will lead you down several roads that are supposedly two-way, only for you to find out that said road is more like a one-way road due to the amount of congestion caused by the cars parked on the sides of the road.

While there have been efforts to ease the congestion by tackling these illegal parkers by road clearing or towing, it’s clear that they aren’t working as much, hence the need for a more drastic solution.

This is why the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is pushing local governments to develop solutions for a Unified No Parking Policy, which will take effect on September 1, 2025.

According to Secretary Jonvic Remulla, the intent of this initiative is to make Metro Manila more livable. He says that the effort will start with parking, where it will take one month to address the issue granular level, with each mayor identifying specific areas to address.

While the pilot area will initially be within Metro Manila, the government plans to expand it to the rest of the country.

As for what will be proposed, several ideas have been floated around, such as to designate all public streets as no-parking zones, or to have a time-based restriction, where street parking is not allowed during rush hours to ease congestion.

Regardless, the final version of the proposal will arise come September 1, 2025, but it’s clear that all the mayors are in agreement that something has to be done. Perhaps, we might eventually see the law of restricting people from buying cars if they don’t have a dedicated parking space come to light?

^{Photos by Sam Surla and MMDA}