MANILA, Philippines – The government spends an estimated P20 billion a year for road repairs caused by overloaded trucks, Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane said yesterday.
Ebdane told reporters that overloaded trucks were mostly responsible for the destruction of sections of national roads all over the country.
“We are studying the possibility of holding the truck operators civilly and criminally liable for their willful and recurrent violations of the Anti-Overloading Law.”
During last week’s staff meeting, Ebdane said they would implement measures to prevent the further destruction of roadways. One option is to place a movable weighbridge near the span to determine the weight of the trucks that go through it.
He said the Department of Public Works and Highways purchased 60 movable weighbridges in 2004 but they were only stationed along major structures all over the country and were not enough to monitor all trucks.
He is also contemplating securing the assistance of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to monitor the trucks.
However, he said that the most these enforcers can do is to issue overloading tickets but they would still allow the erring drivers to go on their way.
Under Republic Act 8794 or the Anti-Overloading Act, violators would have to pay the fine of 25 percent of motor vehicle users charge (MVUC).
“The situation on road maintenance is a substantial investment. The estimated budget for the maintenance of 30,000 kilometers of national roads alone requires P13.5 billion annually,” Ebdane said.
A study conducted by Road Information and Management Support System (RIMSS) showed that in 10 months, from January to October 2006, most of the recorded offenses occurred at the Northern Luzon area, specifically at the Manila North Road in Regions 1 and 3, Cagayan Valley Road in Regions 2 and 3, and San Fernando-Olongapo Road in Region 3.
The average overloading was about eight to 16 percent.
Other hotspots are Cebu-Toledo wharf in Region 7 with 13 percent overloading, and Butuan City-Cagayan de Oro City route in Region 10 with five percent overloading.
Many of these vehicles were rice delivery trucks.
When asked if the request to truckers to reduce their load would affect the rice distribution program of the Arroyo administration, Ebdane said, “If they used to have five trucks, they could make it seven trucks. The movement of rice is not done in one day; there are 30 days in a month.”
Besides, he added, if the roads are damaged the truckers and their equipment would also suffer. — Louise Guevarra