AN ORGANIZATION of truckers is appealing to Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella to implement a three-month moratorium on the impounding of trucks and trailers without complete documentation.
The Visayas United Truckers Association Inc. (VUTAI), through its president Leoncio Cubarol and legal counsel Benjamin Cabrido, made the request to Labella in a letter sent to him on Oct. 31, 2019.
“May we earnestly ask for a three-month moratorium of this campaign on the basis of the public interest as these may affect the flow and transport of goods where volume is unusually high during this holiday season,” the letter said.
VUTAI is composed of 62 trucking companies based in Cebu and is made up of 800 trucks and 1,000 trailers.
The group said that while they support Labella’s campaign against illegal trucks and trailers, they urged the mayor to instead issue citation tickets rather than impound them.
“We assure your office that all our members operate legally registered trucks and tractor heads,” Cabrido added.
But Cabrido said they are in the process of registering trailers as some of their members were not able to complete their registration due to some factors.
“Registration of trailers would cost our members more than P16,000 each, not to mention the red tape and the stringent requirements in each trailer registration,” VUTAI said in their letter.
The recent fire that struck the regional office of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) is also making the processing of registration for trucks and trailers much more harder, the group added.
But LTFRB Central Visayas Director Eduardo Montealto Jr. clarified that it was their agency that initially issued registrations for trailers and trucks.
But now, registration for trucks and trailers now falls under the Land Transportation Office (LTO).
LTO 7 Director Victor Caindec, for his part, said he has already given an extension to owners of trucks and trailers to have their units registered since last year. FROM PAC OF SUPERBALITA CEBU / JKV