Amendment to city’s traffic code pushed

CEBU, Philippines- Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival Sr. is pushing for the amendment of the 23-year old traffic ordinance of the city that regulates the entry of trucks in major roads following an appeal from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.

The NGCP has requested for an exemption of the truck ban enforced in the city. It is also requesting for the amendment of City Ordinance 1430 or the Cebu City Traffic Code.

“The objective of this exemption is to give these service providers whether public or private, access to roads as there services is vital and necessary as it is vested with public interest (sic),” a portion of the proposed ordinance read.

The important tasks of NGCP’s transmission line personnel include the conduct of regular patrol, maintenance, and repair activities at any time in its transmission grid.

The city ordinance bans trucks, trailers, and delivery vans from passing through the major streets in the city from 6:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. which are considered peak hours.

Section 1 of the ordinance exempts government-owned vehicles that are engaged in the delivery of basic public services but does not include NGCP trucks.

“So as not to hamper the conduct of preventive maintenance and other related activities of NGCP personnel, there is an immediate need to include NGCP among those service providers to be exempted under the ordinance,” the proposed amendatory ordinance read.

Any disruption in the sections of the transmission line affects not only the Cebu island but the entire Visayas grid, causing major blackouts and entailing huge economic losses.

Aside from affecting NGCP’s regular patrol and maintenance activities, the truck ban also hampered the working hours of their transmission line personnel doing patrol works especially during bad weather conditions and other emergencies.

The NGCP operates and maintains the safe and reliable transmission of electricity through high voltage backbone system of interconnected transmission lines, substations and other related facilities.

These transmission functions were used to be performed by the National Power Corporation and the National Transmission Corporation. Before NGCP assumed its operations on January 15, 2009, the NAPOCOR and TransCo were included in the list of vehicles exempted from the truck ban.

Also part on the list are fire trucks, trucks carrying oxygen for hospital use, and service vehicles of the Visayan Electric Company, Philippine Long Distance Telephone, and Metropolitan Cebu Water District.

Archival wants the NGCP trucks to be included in the list. The proposed amendment is presently reviewed by the Committee on Laws, Ordinances, Public Accountability and Good Government.  (FREEMAN)