Erap to PPA: Provide parking spaces for trucks

MANILA, Philippines - Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada yesterday asked the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) to do its part in the city government’s campaign to ease traffic in the city by providing parking spaces for trucks.

“The PPA should help ease the traffic in Manila. It should allow the trucks to park inside the PPA compound. The PPA compound is very large and it can even accommodate 10,000 trucks,” Estrada said on GMA-7.

Estrada earlier said the city government is not benefiting from the operations of the PPA.

He said the city government, through the city council, would amend the daytime truck ban should they find it unsuccessful in easing the traffic situation in Manila.

The city government has provided a list of streets where trucks can park during the daytime truck ban, which runs from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

These includes the stretch of Delgado street, from 25th to 21st streets; stretch of Railroad street, from 20th to 13th streets; stretch of Atlanta street, from 14th to 18th streets; 16th and 18th streets to 20th street from Delgado to Railroad streets and 15th and 17th streets from Delgado to Atlanta streets.

Estrada junked the appeal of the Confederation of Truckers Association of the Philippines to allow empty trucks to travel in the city’s streets during the daytime truck ban’s window hours.

“Only those loaded trucks are exempted from the daytime truck ban. They just have to wake up early. It is as simple as that. All of us have to sacrifice for the greatest interest of the greater number of the people in Manila,” Estrada said.

For his part, Vice Mayor Isko Moreno reminded the truckers that the city government is only implementing the law that would give convenience to Manileños who had long suffered from the monstrous traffic caused by trucks.

Estrada said they are ready to face the truckers groups opposing the daytime truck ban should they file a complaint before the court.

Former Manila mayor and now Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza proposed the railway system to help ease the worsening traffic congestion in Metro Manila and speed up the movement of people and cargo to the provinces.

Atienza called for the modernization of the Philippine National Railways (PNR).

“It is about time that we modernize and upgrade our PNR, which can be a good alternative mode of transportation for our commuters,” Atienza said.

“Trains are a sign of economic progress. However, I haven’t seen a clean train pass by my house in San Andres. The poor state of the railroad tracks, which are badly in need of rehabilitation, has already caused many accidents,” he added. – With Paolo Romero