Ban cars, not trucks – Opascor

CEBU, Philippines - Lift the truck ban and ban the cars instead on some days of the week.

This was the suggestion made by the top official of the Oriental Port and Allied Services Corporation (Opascor) during the Cebu Port Summit 2014 at the Casino Español yesterday. Various port stakeholders attended the summit.

Opascor president and general manager Tomas Riveral said trucks are economic drivers of Cebu and yet they are the ones being banned, saying it is one of the reasons of congestion at the Cebu International Port (CIP).

“I suggest a ban sa mga private cars (except for government vehicles and ambulances) instead of banning these trucks. Why don’t we reverse the situation?,” Riveral said during the summit.

Riveral however explained that just like the truck ban, private vehicles should only be banned on a specific hours or day in a week.

Currently, a daily truck ban is implemented in the cities of Mandaue, Cebu and Lapulapu and in the town of Consolacion at least three hours in the morning and another three hours in the evening.

Federico Escalona, executive director of Philexport, said he welcomes the idea of banning private cars on certain time.

He added that there are more private cars than trucks, which were blamed for traffic woes, not to mention trisikads and motorcycles plying on major thoroughfares.

“We have been lobbying for the lifting of the truck ban for the past two years but the local government of these four areas, walay action,” Escalona said.

“Nganong ang truck man ang atong i-ban nga mao man ang nagdala sa mga produkto alang sa mga kunsimidor. We have to resurrect this call for these local government units to lift their truck ban policy,” Escalona added.

Allan Empleo, president of the Cebu Truckers Association Inc. said that Riveral’s suggestion is laudable.

“Mas maayo nga wala na gyud nang truck ban kay nakaapekto kaayo na sa movement sa mga container vans sa port and aside from that it’s an additional cost on our part especially on manpower,” Empleo said during the sidelights of the summit.

The lifting of the truck ban is among the suggestion raised on how to decongest the CIP with container vans that continue to pile up daily at the yard.

Jonathan Fernandez, OPASCOR manager for operations, said that as of yesterday, there were already around 4,500 container vans at the CIP, stressing that the number is way above the capacity of only 4,000 container vans as the number is increasing daily.

Bureau of Customs - Cebu port district collector Roberto Almadin said they are fast-tracking the inventory of their seized and abandoned shipment loaded inside the 1,370 container vans as one way to decongest the port yard.

Deputy collector for operations Paul Alcazaren said they are also extending their office hours until seven o’clock in the evening to accommodate processing of import documents.

Alcazaren also said they will start auctioning off some of seized shipment by end of the month.

An additional x-ray machine will also be set up at CIP next week to hasten examination of shipment, said Rene Bacon, CIP manager.

Opascor will also purchase new equipment within the year as Riveral directed some of his personnel to dispose all their junks at the CIP which include damaged porklift, prime movers, engines, tires, wire ropes and other scrap metals.

Cebu Port Authority general manager Edmund Tan is also considering a land swap deal between the Cebu City government to further increase the storage area of CIP.

Riveral, who is also a CPA commissioner, said the previous board resolution granting a berthing space for a domestic cargo handling company at the yard has to be revisited, stressing that only foreign cargos are allowed at the CIP.

Miguel Angel Larrauri, president of Philippine International Seafreight Forwarders Association Inc.-Cebu Chapter said the congestion of container vans at the CIP has caused a lot of chain reactions especially to the shipping lines and to the consumers, in general.

Jerry Martinez Jr., president of the Cebu Customs Brokers Association also pledged full cooperation to ensure speedy release of shipment.

Opascor, the exclusive cargo-handling and arrastre services provider at the CIP organized the summit to pool port stakeholders’ sentiments against the congestion of container vans since last year.  (FREEMAN)