Wednesday, January 14, 2009 PB mulls repealing quarry ordinance By Jovi T. De Leon
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The Provincial Board (PB) plans to amend some provisions of Ordinance 261 or probably repeal it altogether, saying such appears to become more of a "punishment" to truckers and the industry's stakeholders.
Ordinance 261 regulates the hauling and transporting of sand, gravel and other quarry materials. It seeks to prevent quarry trucks from overloading sand by instituting measures like reducing truck height, removal of truck axle, among others.
"The ordinance has become anti-business and anti-stakeholder," according to Vice Governor Joseller "Yeng" Guiao.
He issued the statement before members and officers of the Federation of Pampanga Truckers Inc. (FPTI), the Pampanga Truck Owners' Association, and representatives from trucker groups from Bulacan and Nueva Ecija who met with him at his office on Monday noon.
The truckers came to see Guiao, the PB's presiding officer, to ask for advice regarding their current plight brought about by the implementation of the ordinance last Friday.
They also went there to follow up developments on the petition they filed on Thursday, which sought to amend provisions in the ordinance and the accompanying Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) and its temporary suspension.
"With what is happening right now, we at the PB may have to scrap the ordinance and replace it with another that is more appropriate to support the national law for which it has been crafted and passed," Guiao said.
The PB, added Guiao, have since been curious why an IRR had been created by the Technical Working Group and the Accreditation Committee because the ordinance, as approved, does not need one to be implemented.
He said the ordinance, as is and in itself, could stand alone as a law deemed to put "teeth and muscle" in the anti-overloading campaign.
"Now the IRR, aside from being illogical, has become stupid. A very stupid move that appears to be a punishment and infringement on the private properties of the truckers and stakeholders," Guiao added.
Guiao told the truckers that the PB approved the ordinance since it was meant simply to curb overloading and protect the province's roads and infrastructure from damages being inflicted by violators of the law.
The vice governor also believed that there is an underlying issue regarding the definition and metrics of "load."
He said getting the load volume of a truck could realistically be obtained by using a weighing scale and not necessarily getting its dimensions, "arithmetically" computing it, and then "cutting" the truck to get the estimated load.
The truckers, for their part, said they too are willing to put up a counterpart funding for the acquisition of weighing scales.
Guiao vowed that they will immediately put back the controversial ordinance on the drawing board for revaluation and assessment. "We are looking at Wednesday as the earliest time. But we see to it that we will re-study the ordinance in its entirety."
For the moment, he advised truckers to continue completing their documents for accreditation if they want, or put everything on "status quo" pending the amendment or repeal of the ordinance, which he hinted could not be vetoed.
"As with your liquidated damages and penalties imposed by your contractors for not making your deliveries as you said, you can go to court and sue the Capitol for that. I am willing to testify regarding the ordinance and how it has affected you, as you say," Guiao said.
