FPTI President Mike Tapang said it will take at least three days to check the weight of some 2,000 trucks hauling sand in Pampanga daily.
“You need about ten minutes to accurately inspect the weight of one truck. Imagine how long we can do the task with ten available weighing scales for the province,” said Tapang, who monitored on January 9 the implementation of Ordinance 261 that put muscle to the Anti-Overloading Law.
Tapang said the cutting of trucks’ side panels will also save millions of pesos for the province. He added that they need about 200 additional workers if they will weigh the load of trucks passing in the province.
He said the allowed weigh of sand is 13.5 cubic meters.
“With the cutting of trucks’ side panels, we just have to let them pass,” he added.
But in a letter to Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao dated January 8, some 11 FPTI officers led by Dong Lacsamana aired their protest over the cutting provision.
“There is further no mention in Republic Act No. 8794 and Ordinance 261 that the ‘TWG (technical working group) may order the reduction of the dimensions of the dump or cargo truck box applied as provided in Sec. 5.3 of the IRR,” they said in the letter. They stressed that the TWG, as stated in the said ordinance, “is merely a recommendatory unit.”
Tapang is a member of the seven-man TWG headed by the provincial engineer.
Lacsamana and Co, in the same letter, also questioned the make-up of the TWG. They said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) representative should be the TWH head “as the functions thereof are more within his core competency.”
