ILOILO City – The public lacks “proper guidance” in the implementation of Ordinance 2002-246 regulating the entry of trucks, according to City Administrator Hernando Galvez.
For one, he said, there were no public signs about the ban.
The ordinance prohibits the entry of trucks into the city from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and on hours specified by the ordinance at specified streets. Its goal is to ease traffic congestion.
But there is no truck ban on Sundays, as expressed in the ordinance.
“One important element in enforcing an ordinance is the public’s knowledge about it,” said Galvez.
In the case of Regulation Ordinance 2002-246, said Galvez, there must be road signs about which type of trucks could enter which streets of the city at certain times of the day.
The Traffic Management Division of the Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO) is duty-bound to, among others, measure trucks entering the city and label them with corresponding stickers.
Under the ordinance, only trucks with “truck ban stickers” are allowed to enter the city at certain hours of the day.
With no proper public information on the truck ban, there would be confusion, said Galvez.
PSTMO chief Jeck Conlu recently denied that Regulation Ordinance 2002-246 was not being enforced.
The Traffic Management Division (TMD) which is under the PSTMO is apprehending trucks that defy the ordinance, according to Conlu.
“It doesn’t mean nga kon may nakita ka nga truck nga nakasulod sa syudad, failure na ang aton pag-implement sang ordinansa,” said Conlu.
He cited as example the presence of garbage on the streets.
“Kon may makita nga basura sa kilid dalan, failure na ang aton General Services Office? I totally disagree nga failure ang aton pag-implement sang aton ordinance,” said Conlu.
Citing TMD data, Conlu said 147 trucks have been apprehended from January to July this year.
The violators were fined P500 each, he added.
But Conlu did not discount the possibility that some traffic division personnel could be conniving with violators.
“Indi naton madakpan tanan nga truck ban violators. We are not a perfect government. May ara gid na violators nga makalusot possibly because wala natalupangdan or nag-connive sa aton personnel sa ground,” said Conlu./PN
