Driving up along Shaw Boulevard coming from C5 Highway, I met heavy traffic several meters before the Old Rizal Provincial Capitol. Being in a hurry, I hastened to take a left turn after a Petron Gas Station intending to take a shortcut through the inner side streets of Barangay Kapitolyo.
But I was met by a security guard-manned entrance gate and the guard informed me that entry is exclusive only to residents with car stickers. I asked since when has this been so, and I was told this particular street was closed to public motorists for several years already. Not wanting to pointlessly argue with the guard, I proceeded along Shaw Blvd. intending to take another left turn further ahead. But even before I could make that left turn, I saw that the street was closed by a high steel fence. I drove on knowing there is another street where I can take the left turn, but that street was also fenced and closed.
So, I began to wonder, is Barangay Kapitolyo an exclusive subdivision, or an exclusive barangay that the residents, or at least someone, was able to close those three public barangay streets.
I checked online and confirmed that Barangay Kapitolyo is really a Barangay of Pasig. As a barangay, it is therefore puzzling why entry to it is exclusive to residents and only to those with car stickers. Thinking I may have missed something, I also checked if Barangay Kapitolyo could somehow be also an exclusive subdivision. But nowhere is it listed as a Pasig subdivision, just a barangay.
I read somewhere that a city or municipal ordinance would be required to legally close a public street. I have no way of immediately confirming this so I first tried asking around. And according to people I talked to, this is how the streets were closed.
At first, the streets were blocked by putting sand, gravel and wood. Then, a sign was posted declaring that it was being “ temporarily closed for repair ‘’. After one or two months, steel fences were put up that closed access to those streets. No further sign or announcement was made about the streets. They were simply closed and no one it seemed bothered to question the street closure.
A similar steel fence was erected along Brixton street near the Pioneer Center, but maybe due to certain business establishments being located farther down that street, the street was not permanently closed as the steel fence was actually of the swinging type, much like a steel gate.
I remember that there was similar controversy several years ago in Paranaque where several subdivisions refused to allow entry for public motorists just passing through. Paranaque motorists were very adamant however because of the heavy traffic situation there. In the end, I believe the right of entry of motorists was eventually upheld.
The case of UP campus also comes to mind where around two or three years ago, several streets that had been open to the public for perhaps decades were suddenly closed to the public. But of course it was government land and a university campus at that, so no one could really question the prerogative of the authorities there to do so, specially in the light of several crimes being committed there specially at night.
Which reminds me of the exclusive Bel-Air Subdivision in Makati which to this day, allow public motorists to drive through their streets as a short cut from JP Rizal street near the City Hall to Jupiter street near Buendia Avenue.
Somehow, one could not really understand why an exclusive subdivision like Bel-Air would allow the public to have access through their private streets but Barangay Kapitolyo would not allow, in fact, fence off the public to prevent them from passing through public barangay roads. One could only guess that maybe someone or some people living in Barangay Kapitolyo feel that they need all the security that they could get. Those people may also feel they need more and more barriers between them and other people. Even if what they are keeping for themselves, the public streets, is not theirs alone.
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