Capitol asked to allow heavier load on trucks

CEBU, Philippines - To recoup income losses, Cebu's quarry and sand hauling operators have asked the Provincial Board to increase the load limit of trucks carrying quarry materials to 15 cubic meters and 18 cu.m for limestone, siliceous clay and diorite materials from 10 cu.m.

 At least 45 quarry operators and haulers agreed during their June 16 meeting to sign a petition for the amendment of the provincial ordinance No. 2011-23, which sets the load limit on trucks carrying materials from quarry operations.

 "We sincerely hope you will consider our appeal as we believe that we are also your partners in the development and progressive province of Cebu," reads the letter they submitted to the PB.

 The ordinance allows the 10 wheeler hauling truck to carry materials 10 cu. m or not exceeding 2.3 meters in width, 4.73 meters in length and 0.92 meter in height or its equivalent for truck of different make and dump box sizes.

 They aired different sentiments over the ordinance, saying "its implementation creates partiality, discrimination, oppressive, unreasonable, corruption, income losses and illegal activities on quarrying, transporting and hauling became rampant."

 "There are some inconsistencies, doubts and undefined procedures and processes in the actual implementation of the said ordinance," they added.

 The operators admitted they used to give money to apprehending officers from the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office so as not to delay the delivery of materials. It can be recalled that PENRO tagged five of its employees who allegedly extorted money from quarry operators. Three of them were terminated, one has resigned, and another, the brother of former PENRO chief Chad Estella, was reassigned to the Provincial Assessor's Office.

 "Source of corruption to some officers as drivers of hauling trucks will be forced to hand in a certain amount of promises in cash or in kind so not to delay deliveries," they said.

 Increasing the cubic meters for sand and gravel and limestone materials would recoup their income losses due to prevailing market rate of these materials saying that the "little" amount earned is just enough to pay for personal, vehicle maintenance and fuel expenses.

 Due to losses, the operators and haulers admitted that they do not declare accurate volume of load exceeding the allowed 10 cu. m.

 "Thus, a big loss to the provincial, municipal and the barangay concerned since the overload 5 cu. m is not being declared," they said.

 They said the province, towns, and barangays where the quarry operations are carried out benefited from them in terms of extraction fees and additional revenue. The province and municipality get a 30 percent share while 40 percent of the total fees paid by operators go to the barangays.

 The operators said the additional 5 cu.m for sand and gravel on top of the 10 cu. m will not damage the provincial roads, which was the apprehension of some officials.

 The explained that the volume of limestome materials should not be equal to sand and gravel since the former is lighter two to three times.

 Aside from these, they are concerned on the "unfair competition" posed by "unregulated" quarry supplies from Dumaguete City, which have lower rates but have bigger quantity truck loads.

 They claimed that overloading of trucks, some are closed vans that are hard to monitor, from Negros is causing damages to the roads and that he province has failed to monitor and enforce the said ordinance especially the load limits. 

 "Trucking companies transporting cement from Cebu to Negros Oriental (Dumaguete) return to the province with truck loads full of gravel and sand using wing vans and cargo trucks with carrying capacity from 25 to 60 tonnage," they said. (FREEMAN)