BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan extended for another ten days the earlier suspension of the city’s new truck ban to allow stakeholders to submit their proposals on additional exemptions to the coverage of the truck ban ordinance.
The local chief executive earlier ordered the suspension of the new truck ban ordinance last March 21, 2017 after a dialogue with La Trinidad Mayor Romeo Salda, La Trinidad municipal police Chief Inspector Benson Macli-ing and officers of the truckers association following the reported serious negative effects of the ban on the delivery of perishable agricultural crops from the vegetable trading post to the lowland and Metro Manila markets.
“We have to listen to the plight of stakeholders who are affected by the implementation of the truck ban. While there are proposed alternate routes to be taken by the truckers, there are issues relative to safety which are being raised by the concerned truckers that is why we have to balance the interest of the stakeholders and the city’s desire to reduce the worsening traffic jams around the city,” Domogan stressed.
He said the city government will wait for proposals of concerned stakeholders to inform a decision whether or not to grant the exemptions from the coverage of the new truck ban ordinance to ensure the delivery of perishable goods to the prospective markets in the lowlands and Metro Manila considering that Benguet remains to be the major supplier of highland vegetables to the different parts of the country.
According to him, there are various options for the government to take to ease the burden of the truckers from the implementation of the new truck ban, particularly the grant of exemptions to the concerned truckers association or to work out the necessary amendments to the pertinent provisions of the truck ban ordinance to allow trucks loaded with perishable goods to be exempted from the coverage of the local legislative measure.
Under the new truck ban ordinance, 6-wheeler trucks having a gross weight of over 4,500 tons and units of heavy equipment are not allowed to travel around the city from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
Officials of the concerned truckers group informed Mayor Domogan that they have to catch up with the night market in Pasig City that starts 11 p.m. daily while other truckers must be at the port area within a prescribed time to load cargo vessels with their vegetables for delivery to markets in the different parts of the Visayas and Mindanao, thus, the need for them to be allowed to freely traverse along the major roads in the city during the afternoon, specifically from 4 pm to 7 pm.
The truckers recommended to the city Mayor the issuance of food lane stickers similar to what is being issued by the La Trinidad municipal government and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) that would exempt them from the coverage of the new truck ban in the city so that the delivery of the agricultural crops to the lowlands will not be unduly delayed.
By Dexter A. See
