Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada has lifted the truck ban “indefinitely” on Saturday noon to give way to the efforts of the national government to address congestion on ports of Manila.
Estrada issued Executive Order (EO) 67 lifting the truck ban blamed for the traffic jams on roads around the port after it was implemented on February by the city government.
“The traffic-management council of Manila has recommended that the truck ban of the city of Manila be lifted in order to give the national government a free hand in addressing the problem of port congestion,” Estrada said.
For his part, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Francis W. Tolentino thanked Estrada for the lifting.
“I thank the good mayor of Manila for his concern in trying to find solutions to decongest the Port of Manila. As we revert back to the pre-Manila ordinance situation, I am confident that with the help of all concerned private and government stakeholders, a sustainable solution will be crafted,” Tolentino said.
Tolentino added, “ I will immediately convene the Metro Manila Mayors Special Traffic Committee to craft a responsive scheme that will incorporate the city of Manila’s efforts with that of the national government.”
Under EO 67, Estrada also ordered all government departments and offices in the city of Manila, including the Manila Traffic Bureau and Manila Police District, to “extend full support in assistance to concerned national government offices and agencies.”
EO 67 further said: “Orders, rules, regulations and issuances or parts thereof, which are inconsistent with this order are hereby repealed, ended, or modified accordingly.”
Meanwhile, Estrada appealed to commuters and motorists to “prepare for any inconvenience that may result in the lifting of the truck ban.”
Consumers shoulder extra cost
The brunt of the ongoing truck ban policy in the country’s capital city will have to be shouldered by consumers, the chief of the government’s port body said over the weekend.
Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) General Manager Juan C. Sta. Ana said the drive of his agency to relocate overstaying boxes in the two ports in Manila will have a domino effect on the cost of goods.
He maintained that cargo owners will shoulder the cost of transferring the goods out of Manila to Laguna or in Subic. However, the port chief said that these cargo owners would likely pass the added cost to their customers.
“We know that transferring cargoes outside of Manila will entail cost that will be passed eventually to the consuming public,” Sta. Ana stressed. “However, we have to adopt such measure to guarantee that we have enough space for the incoming containers to reduce the pressure on inflation.”
He blamed the ongoing truck ban in Manila for the restricted flow of goods from the ports, resulting in gridlock that caused several sectors billions of pesos in losses.
“As long as the city of Manila truck ban remains, major road arteries to warehouses are closed and the movements of trucks are restricted, we will be forced to relocate more cargoes wherein all cost relative to the transfer are pass-on cost to consumers, meaning the brunt will be carried by the public,” the port chief stressed.
On Sunday the PPA and the two port operators started sending overstaying and cleared-to-go cargoes to a facility in 4-hectare facility in Cabuyao, Laguna.
Based on inventory, there are about 5,000 twenty-foot equivalent units of overstaying customs-cleared ready-to-go containers at the two terminals.
The port operators have identified all overstaying ready-to-go containers above 30 days and segregate them to northbound and southbound containers, wherein the transfer of such containers will be on a “first in, first out” basis.
All northbound overstaying containers will be ferried to Subic using the Super Shuttle Service offered by International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), while southbound containers will be hauled off to Calamba in Laguna.
Importers, brokers and cargo owners that have been affected by the transfer will still have to clear their cargo with the Manila operators and once all the cargo-handling fees including the transfer cost and other charges have been settled, importers can pick up their cargoes in an “as is where is” basis.
This decongestion effort will be repeated for four Sundays by both ICTSI and Asian Terminals Inc.
“We will continue with this initiative until we have met the desired number of containers inside the two Manila ports, which is equivalent to an 80-percent yard utilization,” Sta. Ana stressed.
The two listed port operators are mulling over the prospect of jointly chartering a bigger vessel to haul more containers out of the ports of Manila, namely the Manila International Container Terminal and the Manila South Harbor.
As of the moment, decongestion efforts have very little success even with the “last mile” scheme due to the unsynchronized restrictions being implemented by the different local government units to truckers.
The “truck appointment system” has also taken the back seat anew due to the road restrictions which defeated the purpose of
the scheme.
The Cabinet Cluster on Port Congestion, meanwhile, reiterated the implementation of the modified truck-ban rule wherein the “double lane” trade lane will be implemented during truck ban hours from 6 to 10 a.m. and 5 to 10 p.m., while the roads will be “free-for-all” during off-ban hours or from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. to allow trucks to deliver cargoes from the ports to the warehouses except Edsa from Magallanes to Balintawak; Katipunan from Santolan to Commonwealth Avenue; Ortigas Avenue from Santolan to Santa
Lucia; entire stretch of Taft Avenue; parts of C.M. Recto to Legarda; and España from Rotonda to Quezon Boulevard.
The cluster also continues to appeal to the private sector to take advantage of the Saturday, Sunday and holiday releases to disperse cargo during weekends where traffic and restrictions are low.
The government has also prepared incentives for all stakeholders that will withdraw on weekends and Monday mornings.
ICTSI calls Monday meeting
As this developed, Christian Gonzalez, head of the ICTSI Asia-Pacific Region, called for a meeting of all sectors involved in the waterfront with the aim of “putting together a decongestion plan under the new conditions set by the truck ban lifting.”
Gonzalez said: “Like most problems, it took a short time to occur but it will take a long time to solve. This ban lifting is a major step but only the first of many. What we need to do now is shorten the time it takes to totally solve the issue by ensuring that everyone is working for the same thing.
“We need to set aside individual solutions with operators, truckers, government, shipping lines and cargo owners all moving in the
same direction.”
With Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco