The Zapote River Drive that passes through Evia Lifestyle Center is only open during mall hours, and people have questions

Netizens have questioned the legality of a public road traversing a mall in Las Piñas City whose access is restricted to mall hours.

On Reddit, user u/bagumbayan uploaded a poster of the Evia Lifestyle Center along Daang Hari Road, which announced that the 850-meter Zapote River Drive, meant as a bypass for the traffic-heavy Alabang-Zapote road, would be open from 7am to 10pm daily.

“Evia Lifestyle Center [is] now more accessible via Zapote River Drive. Road open from 10am to 7pm daily,” it read.

The Evia Lifestyle Center is a shopping center under mall operator Vistamalls, which is owned by Manny Villar, who also sits as the chairman of property developer Vista Land & Lifescapes. 

Villar is a former Philippine senator and was named by Forbes as the richest in the Philippines in April last year. His wife Cynthia and son Mark are both elected senators.

“If that’s a public road, it should be open to the public 24/7. Villar is just shameless for restricting access to mall hours,” u/QKValderama wrote.

“That’s what you get when those with high positions have conflict of interest but have no delicadeza (propriety),” u/Possible_Breakfast86 chimed in.

“And that’s also a valid alternative route for Las Piñas residents. We passed through that a few times already and it provides a shortcut to several (non- Villar owned) subdivisions along the way,” u/malodybaloney said.

The Zapote River Drive was part of a 32-kilometer road improvement project initiated by Senator Cynthia Villar in 2012, which was reportedly meant to ease traffic congestion in Las Piñas. The senator and her daughter, Las Piñas City representative Camille Villar, inaugurated the road with the Department of Public Works and Highways in 2021.

This is far from the first time the Villars have been embroiled in similar infrastructural controversies. Manny, then sitting Senate President who launched a presidential bid in 2010, faced a Senate inquiry before the campaign where critics accused him of leveraging connections to build the C-5 road, a highway that links Las Piñas to the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, to benefit his property development businesses.