Baguio truck ban creates tiff with Benguet officials
>> Tuesday, July 4, 2017
BAGUIO CITY –
Officials of this summer resort and that of Benguet, considered the salad bowl
of the country are now at odds over implementation of a truck ban which the
latter’s officials said greatly affected the province’s vegetable industry
considering almost 80 percent of vegetable needs of Metro Manila and other parts
of the country come from Benguet.
Following
this, Baguio mayor Mauricio G. Domogan urged provincial and municipal officials
of Benguet to be sober in dealing with serious problems encountered by
vegetable truckers with the city’s new truck ban ordinance which prohibits them
from travelling on city roads during peak hours.
The mayor
said he received reports some municipalities around the city are planning to
enact ordinances that will also impose a truck ban within their areas covering
trucks bringing goods to the city’s businesses which could result in delays in
transport of goods from the lowlands to the city.
The order
to close the Lamtang waste transfer station in nearby La Trinidad, Benguet
being used by the city’s hauler as a staging area prior to transport of
residual waste to the Capas landfill, was reportedly indirect retaliation
to non-exemption of vegetable truckers from the truck ban.
“The
reports that we received should serve as an eye-opener to our local legislators
to immediately act on numerous pending requests for exemption from the coverage
of the truck ban because we initially found merit in their requests,” Domogan
said.
He said
provincial and municipal officials of Benguet must not take drastic actions on
the issue because these can create more problems if they will proceed in
passing their own truck ban ordinance as will surely derail the growth of the
local economy.
He said he
already found a loophole in the city’s new truck ban ordinance when it was
implemented that is why he was constrained to issue an unconfirmed
administrative order as a stopgap measure but he was misunderstood by some
local legislators who branded the said order as an executive amendment to the
ordinance.
Under the
city’s truck ban ordinance, heavy trucks shall not be allowed to travel along
major city roads from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
Domogan
said he was waiting for action of the city council on how to temporarily ease
the burden of truckers before making his own move so there will be a combined
executive and legislative action on the matter to prevent allegations that he
is already stepping on the shoes of local legislators which he does not want to
happen.
Following
this, the city council committee on public utilities, traffic and transport
legislation will recommend to the local legislative body a temporary relief of
truckers from the full implementation of the city’s new truck ban ordinance
while it is working on the proposed amendments to the provisions of Ordinance
No. 05, series of 2017.
The measure
will be submitted by the committee to the local legislative body during its
regular session on July 3 to provide the necessary relief to truckers ferrying
perishable goods from the farms to the markets in Metro Manila and other
lowland areas.
During
the public hearing on the proposed amendments to the assailed truck ban
ordinance last Tuesday, concerned truckers in the city and other parts of
Benguet pressed the local legislative body to provide the appropriate temporary
relief for certain truckers from the implementation of the truck ban so that
there will be an uninterrupted delivery of goods from the farms to the markets.
Vegetable truckers asserted the need for them to be granted total exemption
from the coverage of the truck ban considering that they are catching up
certain time slots in the Metro Manila area, particularly the night market in
Pasig City that starts at around 11 pm daily, and the schedule of the vessels
leaving for the Visayas and Mindanao areas.
While
the truckers respect the right of the city government to regulate the entry of
trucks so as not to contribute to traffic congestions, officials of vegetable
truckers groups claimed in Metro Manila, concerned government agencies and
local governments granted them exemption from the coverage of their truck ban
by providing them food lane stickers recognizing the importance of the delivery
of perishable goods to the markets on time, and Baguio City can also be lenient
on the said matter.
Representatives
of gasoline dealers in the city also clamored for exemption from the coverage
of the truck ban because the delayed delivery of oil products to the city will
definitely affect the stability of the gasoline and diesel supply in the city
plus the fact that they do not have a hand in dictating the schedule when to
have their delivery trucks filled up in their depot in Poro Point, San
Fernando, La Union.
Lawyer
Eduardo M. Aratas, head of Philex Mining Corporation’s legal and administrative
division, said the truck ban should not be totally implemented to their trucks
ferrying mine ore concentrate from their Padcal mine site to their storage area
in Poro Point because of their round-the-clock operations and there will be
times that their trucks will be in the city during the truck ban times.
Aratas
argued the company is catching up in its export commitments and there will be
times their trucks will be caught in the truck ban, thus, they are requesting
for exemption too from the city considering the contribution of the mining
industry to the growth of the city’s economy through the years.
Some
sectors also proposed for the reduction of the truck ban time from 6 a.m. to 9
a.m. to 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. to 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. --
Dexter A. See
