Bicol IATF suspends Albay truck ban

NO TO TRUCK BAN A truck carrying goods passes through Quezon Avenue in Legazpi City on Friday. The interagency task force in Bicol has suspended the truck ban in Albay province to help revive local commerce amid the pandemic. —REY ANTHONY OSTRIA

LEGAZPI CITY — The Bicol Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has ordered the provincial government of Albay to suspend the implementation of its truck ban ordinance that has hampered the flow of goods between Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

Lawyer Anthony Nuyda, regional director of the Department of the Interior and Local Government and concurrent Bicol IATF chair, issued BIATF Resolution No. 2020-19 on Friday, which declared that the ordinance runs counter to the IATF Omnibus Guidelines on Community Quarantine.

Nuyda said the BIATF assessment concluded that the truck ban would affect the transport of all types of cargoes supporting the local economy of the province and other Bicol provinces as well as areas in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.

According to the resolution, “the unnecessary delay would be more devastating to other local economies which cargoes are transported through Albay province.”

The BIATF cited Section 7 of the Omnibus Procedures on Community Quarantine providing procedures for “interzonal and intrazonal movement requiring unhampered movement of all types of cargoes by land, air, or sea within areas place under any form of community quarantine.”

Gov. Al Francis Bichara signed Provincial Ordinance No. 011-2020 in February but it was only implemented late last month. It banned trucks traversing along the national roads (Maharlika Highway) within the province of Albay from 6 a.m to 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. to address traffic congestion in key urban centers in the province during peak hours. Only government trucks and those delivering perishable goods are exempted from the ban.

Bichara has acknowledged the Bicol IATF resolution and has asked members of the provincial board to give him the authority to lift the ban temporarily in consideration of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic now faced by the country, according to the governor’s spokesperson, Daniel Garcia.

Opposition

The ordinance has faced stiff opposition from Bicol traders, with the Camarines Sur Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CSCCI) going as far as suing the province of Albay. They called the ordinance as detrimental to the businesses that are still recovering from the negative impact spawned by the pandemic.

The Albay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), in a letter signed by 261 members led by its president, Rosemarie Quinto Rey, strongly rejected the ordinance and urged Bichara to cancel the truck ban regulation. The ACCI lamented that the chamber was not consulted or asked to attend a public hearing when the ordinance was being crafted.

The ACCI also questioned the truck ban time frame, saying that the designated time of the ban coincides with the arrival for trucks carrying cargoes from Northern Luzon to their respective points of destination in Albay.

The CSCCI sought for a temporary restraining order and writ of preliminary injunction against the ordinance. The petition is now pending before the sala of Judge Maria Theresa San Juan-Loquillano of the Regional Trial Court in Legazpi City.

A group of Albay contractors also asked Interior Secretary Eduardo Año to render a legal opinion on whether or not the Albay provincial board has the power to enact an ordinance regulating traffic on national roads.