Truck ban to ‘hurt’ rural folk

AS expected, mountain folk in Barili town didn’t favor the decision to ban the use of government dump trucks to ferry passengers.

In the mountain barangays, this is the only means of transportation for large groups to attend fiestas or funerals in the poblacion.

While jeeps and multicabs can go up slopes, the dump truck has a bigger capacity.

Barili Vice Mayor Marlon Garcia said rural residents, most of them farmers, couldn’t afford to hire a bus or a hearse for transportation.

“Funeral services would cost them P10,000 to P12,000 including embalming. As much as they want to carry down the casket, because of the distance, that would be a big sacrifice,” he said.

The order issued last Friday of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to all mayors in Central Visayas not to allow the use of dump trucks to transport passengers would directly affect poor families in far-flung barangays.

This sentiment was shared by Dumanjug Mayor Nelson Garcia, president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Cebu chapter and Barili Mayor Teresito Mariñas.

They said they are ready to comply with the memorandum from DILG 7 Regional Director Pedro Noval, but they appealed for concessions not to strictly implement it, for example for emergencies and funerals.

“The people in the mountains will be the ones to suffer,” said Nelson Garcia.

He confirmed that the use of dump trucks was a common practice in funerals and some emergencies. Several towns used government dump trucks to ferry their festival dancers to the Pasigarbo sa Sugbo celebration in Mandaue City.

(The truck driver in Thursday’s accident, Alvin Bayno, was the same one who transported Barili’s dance troupe to the Pasigarbo on board the ill-fated dump truck a week earlier.)

Garcia said most of the towns had no other available vehicles except for dump trucks to drive uphill.

“We can’t avoid it.  People appeal to us to use the trucks. How can we say no?” the mayor said.

But he agreed that dump trucks must not be used for picnics , fiestas and other activities that are not important.

Mayor Mariñas of Barili said the DILG memorandum was correct but that people in remote areas would suffer.

“Pity the people in the mountains who have to walk kilometers to the poblacion under the sun. They’ll be the ones most affected,Mariñas said.

Barili town has an air-conditioned bus for 40 to 50 people but it can’t reach far-flung areas and mountain roads.

Mayor Garcia said he will propose to the LMP Cebu to construct cemeteries in the mountain barangays so family members don’t have to go down to the poblacion to bury their loved ones. /correspondent Jhunnex Napallacan