Tulabut: Illegal passway fees

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

IT’S raining hard. And the state of road pavements, especially highways, is noticeably bad.

In my hometown Mabalacat, I could see right before my eyes how roads are destroyed. Not occasionally but on a daily basis.

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The culprits? Heavy sand and gravel trucks and the so-called passway stops they have to make. No thanks too to barangay officials who unconscionably collect fees from truckers. Unconscionable indeed for three reasons: one, this kind of collection is illegal. Two, trucks that are made to stop to pay such fees cause the destruction.

Three, barangay officials do not, in any way, do something to cover the potholes that overloaded trucks create on road pavements. Such a shame.

I can specifically point at very bad roads in front of passway stops in Barangay Mamatitang just right before the Mabalacat Baptist Church if you are south bound along MacArthur Highway. The other one is at Sta. Ines near the Mabalacat Arc on the entry point to NLEx which form part of the Tarlac-Pampanga provincial road network.

The road pavements at the said areas are worse than the craters of the moon. And barangay officials who collect passways supposedly to conduct some maintenance of the roads for such fees are doing nothing at all.

Just before I forget it, there are passway collectors also for Barangay Poblacion (in front of the Our Lady of Grace Parish) and at San Francisco (right outside Mabalacat Gate of Clark Freeport). While the roads in these areas might not be as bad, they are in no way excluded from being pointed at.

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Not that only the collection is unconscionable, it is said to be illegal. No less than the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer of Pampanga Art Punzalan pointed out that passway collection is not allowed by law. He said only the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB), an attached agency under DPWH, has the power to levy such fees.

He cited in particular the collection of toll fees right inside Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac which was stopped, as the private firm did not have the authority to do so.

Mr. Punzalan said that even the adoption of ordinances by the barangay council does not serve as an absolute basis to collect such fees. Besides, would an edict from local village supersede national laws such as the mandate of the TRB? Need I mention here too that the MacArthur highway and provincial roads are under the jurisdiction of the DPWH?

This hardworking guy who is one of the assets of the Pineda Administration has made the declaration not only in my calls to him but also publicly through radio interview that the passway fees do not only cost truckers and haulers extra costs but that they are patently illegal.

And I could not agree any better as I saw that myself.

At one time, I made a quick stop at the Mamatitang passway and saw that the collectors do not issue Official Receipts from the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GROP). For clarity here, GROP receipts are those with serial numbers and the standard coat of arms for the state.

What I saw over there did not in any way have the semblance. “Papel Soswa” you say?

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So where do the barangays spend the money they collect from passway fees? Is there an accounting of the collected funds?

I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine.

What I know is that they are not fully spent on repairing the potholes that the sand and gravel trucks unduly create whenever they stop at passway collectors.

Maybe DPWH officials should come for observation in these areas where the roads they build on taxpayers’ money just cruelly get beaten by stopping trucks.

Maybe too, that DILG, who has supervision on barangay affairs, should also see to it that village officials should adhere only to what they are allowed to do or not to do.

Maybe too, that PENRO should call the attention of the barangay officials insofar as hauling and transporting mines and quarry by products are concerned.

Maybe too, that Mayor Marino Morales should admonish barangay leaders in the imposition of fees that are illegal.

Am I asking so much? Maybe not.