For five days starting Dec 17, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will allow cargo trucks on Roxas Boulevard from midnight to 5 am to help decongest the Port of Manila before Christmas time.
MMDA Memorandum Circular No. 12-2104, signed by chairman Francis Tolentino on Dec 15, allows trucks to traverse Roxas Boulevard from 12 am until 5 am, in addition to letting them use the existing San Marcelino route that will remain passable to trucks 24/7.
MMDA said MC No. 12-2014 is also in answer to the request of Cabinet Secretary and Chairman of the Cabinet Cluster on Port Congestion (CCPC) Jose Rene Almendras on Dec 10 to grant truck ban exemptions on certain routes.
But for Dec 19 only, a total truck ban regulation will be reimposed on the whole of Metro Manila between 5 pm and 12 midnight, except for routes going to North Luzon Expressway, as prescribed under Metro Manila Council Special Traffic Committee (MMC STC) No. 10-2014, “in anticipation of heavy volume of vehicles at the last Friday before Christmas 2014.”
Normal truck routes and regulations under MMC STC No. 10-2014, which imposed the Roxas Boulevard truck ban for six months starting Dec 3, will become effective again starting Dec 23.
The five-hour reprieve between Dec 17 and Dec 22 is one hour less than the request of the Confederation of Truckers Association of the Philippines (CTAP) to be permitted to use the inner lane of Roxas Boulevard from 12 midnight to 6 am for deliveries going to and coming from south of Manila.
In a separate statement, Philippine Ports Authority said it will continue, together with the CCPC, to request MMDA to allow trucks to use Roxas Boulevard beyond Dec 22.
According to CTAP president Ruperto Bayocot, the old route to and from the South entails “additional three hours in travel time and 100% on fuel expenses.”
Bayocot said this affects shipments not only to Cavite but to the whole Calabarzon (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) area where “more or less 40% of the total daily withdrawal from MICT (Manila International Container Terminal) and South Harbour” goes.
“Out of the 5,000 trucks, 40% are bound to South and Cavite,” Bayocot noted.
CTAP director Alberto Suansing, in a text message to PortCalls, said the five-day, five-hour reprieve will help, but noted that deliveries during that period will be only “minimal.” – Roumina Pablo
