Vehicles at a standstill at the NLEx San Fernando toll plaza.
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Dump trucks barricaded early Saturday morning all eight toll plazas of the North Luzon Expressway in the province of Pampanga causing traffic to come to a standstill within the immediate vicinities in and out of the tollway.
Starting at 6 a.m. entry and exit at the NLEx toll gates in San Simon, City of San Fernando, Mexico, Angeles City, Dau, Mabiga, and Sta. Inez as well as those of the SCTEx in Porac and Floridablanca were effectively blocked.
The haulers put up the blockade to protest the policy of NLEX Corp. prohibiting the entry of 12-wheeler and 14-wheeler trucks on the tollway since late August. This, they said, despite their compliance with restrictions on the weight of their cargo earlier set by NLEX Corp.
NLEX Corp. officials were also scored for snubbing the Nov. 6 meeting with quarry trucking firms to finalize the allowable load of cargo, said Lennard Lansang, president of the Porac Truckers and Haulers Association.
Gov. Dennis “Delta” Pineda, upon learning of the protest-blockade, went to the San Fernando toll plaza to dialog with the haulers and committed to take theirissue to national leaders.
“The NLEX is owned by the government. NLEX Corp. only manages it but it decided to ban quarry trucks without consulting local government units,” the governor told reporters, even as he lashed at NLEX Corp. for “its slow system of resolving issues.”
“All that its management do is talk. It does not provide solutions,” Pineda said, expressing concern over the well-being of some 4,000 drivers and helpers who do not earn income as the ban entered its third month.
The daily rate of drivers and helpers are P1,000 and P500, respectively. Haulers get a profit of P2,000 after operational expenses and amortization on vehicles.
The governor said that in their last dialogue, haulers informed him that they have reduced the sidings of their trucks to be able to comply with the allowable load on NLEx.
“They cannot use the MacArthur Highway because it is busy and the road condition is bad,” he explained, hence the imperative of immediately opening NLEx to them
This, as Pineda said the prohibition was not being enforced squarely because information reaching him showed that some patrol guards allow entry to even heavier trucks in exchange for P1,000.
He also slammed the management of NLEX Corp. after two of its patrol guards arrested at gunpoint a protesting driver at the Mabalacat toll gate.
Heeding the governor’s appeal, the protesting haulers lifted their blockade at 7:25 a.m. With Pampanga PIO
