IT'S ABOUT TIME WE IMPOSE LOAD LIMITS ON OUR ROADS

Governor Arthur D. Defensor initiated a Memorandum of Agreement with the various agencies led by the DPWH where each of the entities involved shall do its part to monitor and steward road users. Governor Defensor had noted that large trucks are now plying all kinds of road networks of the Province, many of them exceeding the load limits imposed. Roads in the province and in the entire island had been designed for intermediate load limits not exceeding 20 metric tons.

However lopsided the MOA according to the information of Atty. Pet Melliza, the Governor acceded to provide for new weighing equipment and personnel to man the weighing stations to be set up in key points of the province. This move by the Governor shows his concern for the sad state of the road networks. He saw the fast deterioration due to the propensity of private business to invest in overly large trucks so that they can move their goods more efficiently, at the expense of our road networks.

Roads are vital to the everyday life and one of the prime movers of the economy. Products are moved faster and cheaper when roads are good and the network is extensive. Local roads complement the national program of the Roll-On Roll-Off ships where big capacity trucks carrying vegetables and other goods from the far north are transported without need for unloading, up to the terminal points, bringing these goods cheaper to the end market or the consumer.

Let us take for an example the Baguio vegetables. Before the RoRo program, sub-temperate vegetables and the daily spice, onions were much more expensive since these products may undergo up to three handling starting at the loading point, Baguio. They usually are trucked to Divisoria first, then shipped via the passenger ships to Iloilo City port. In both places, the traders need to unload and have to pay for unloading and loading labor which often are expensive since the realities of labor intermediaries have to be dealt with.

So if cabbage would cost a mere P15.00/kilogram in Baguio, the lowest price sold to the consumer in Iloilo City would probably be about P40.00. The mark up would be P25.00 which is P10.00 more than the initial price. This time with the RoRo and the much improved road network, cabbage would cost a lot lesser since the market flow would be cut shorter. A trader in Iloilo City can simply negotiate with the vegetable farmer or even the trader in the Bagsakan Market of Baguio City, load up on his 10-wheeler and transport it all the way to Iloilo City crossing the sea twice, first at the Batangas Port then at the Caticlan Port. There will only be two labor components: first at the loading point in Baguio City and at the unloading point in Iloilo City. He could probably save as much as P6.00 per kilogram in labor cost.

Even if vegetables and other agricultural products were just grown locally, good roads are still vital to the economy. Smooth flow of farm products from the hinterlands would end up cheaper at the consuming end when the wear and tear of vehicles as well as fuel expense would be much cheaper. The bad roads of the second district from the mountain farms of Leon and Alimodian to Iloilo City are one reason why sub-temperate vegetables coming from that area costs as much as those coming from Baguio. Farmers from that area are hoping that the roads can be repaired and even improved soonest through inclusion in the national budget or through the congressional development funds.

The initiative of Governor Defensor will definitely have immediate effects. Load limit imposition will surely lengthen the life span of these roads and funds can be aligned to building more new roads when there is lesser allocation for maintenance of the existing roads.