After talking tough, Mayor Estrada defers truck ban

Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada on Thursday reset the implementation of the city’s revised truck ban to Feb. 24, saying cargo moving companies would be given two weeks to make necessary adjustments.

The mayor and former President earlier announced that the ban, aimed at easing traffic flow in the city, would be enforced starting Monday and that he would be ready to face any resistance, wearing the old military uniform from his Malacañang days.

On the same day Estrada talked tough on the ban, the head of Aduana Business Club Inc. (ABCI), an organization of importers, exporters, licensed brokers and truckers, openly criticized the measure, saying the group had been opposing it since the council hearings. ABCI president Mary Zapata warned of economic repercussions and called it a form of “political suicide” on the part of its proponents.

Another ABCI official weighed in on Thursday, saying the new ban could be intended as an act of “economic sabotage” that would reflect badly on the administration of President Aquino and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas.

“Why are they doing this? This will hike up overhead expenses and the price of commodities will increase. If raw materials are not delivered on time, factories might shut down. If exporters cannot deliver, their contracts will be pulled out,” said Rey Salgado, ABCI vice president for government affairs.

“President Aquino is inviting investors to come here but this measure will choke businessmen. To whom will it boomerang? To the leadership of Malacañang and the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government),” Salgado said in a media forum at Aloha Hotel.

“Of course not. That’s the last thing I’ll ever do,” Estrada said when told of Salgado’s remarks. “There’s no politics here. We are just putting things in order.”

“We’re thinking of the greater good for the greatest number. Students and employees are affected by traffic. The truckers will be free to use the roads, even Roxas Boulevard, from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.,” Estrada said.

Under the measure, eight-wheel trucks and vehicles with gross weight above 4,500 kilograms will be banned from Manila roads from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. That’s seven hours longer than the previous ban.

On the hours they are allowed to pass through Manila, they can do so only on designated truck routes. Exempted from the ban are trucks carrying perishable goods and petroleum products, as well as vehicles used for government projects.

Speaking next to Estrada during a briefing on Monday, Vice Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso maintained that stakeholders were properly consulted on the ban through public hearings and a traffic summit.

Domagoso noted, however, that “99 percent” of them were opposed to it.