AFTER consultation with various stakeholders, Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez has decided that the truck ban should not be implemented in Bacolod City during weekends.
During the consultative meeting, it was agreed upon as well that a certain truck entry with specified time intervals and those carrying perishable goods should be exempted, a statement from the City Government said Sunday, December 11, 2022.
As amended, the total truck bans will be implemented in Bacolod during weekdays from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. while regulated entries of trucks are allowed from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. with five-minute intervals in between.
“The public consultation (was conducted) with the purpose of compromising into a solution to at least ease the congestion in the Circumferential Road,” Benitez said.
He said that this will be on an experimental basis and if it does not work, then the City Government will adjust.
“Rest assured that I will be on top of this and make sure it's properly implemented,” the mayor added.
Bacolod Traffic Authority Office head Major Junji Liba earlier said they will also strictly enforce the truck ban on Circumferential Road and Access Road in the city from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Although under City Ordinance 542, the city imposed the truck ban should be from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Exempted from the ban are firetrucks, police buses and military vehicles with permanent marking indicating the vehicles as such, heavy truck commandeered by the government directed by a person in authority, heavy trucks carrying persons needing immediate medical attention, heavy vehicles utilized as garbage trucks, and government vehicles with government plates.
Liba said that the violators will be fined P1,000 for the first offense, P3,000 and P5,000 for the second and third offenses, respectively, with confiscation of their driver’s license.
Meanwhile, the 90-day trial for the one-way traffic scheme along Lacson, Aguinaldo and Gatuslao streets in Bacolod will start Monday, December 12.
Liba appealed for the cooperation of both the commuters and the motorists saying that if these new traffic schemes will not be effective, “they will stop it right away.”
As of Sunday, they are already starting to put up signages along the streets that will be affected by the scheme.
Traffic enforcers as well as barangay tanods will also be deployed in these areas to ensure a smooth flow of traffic, he said.