Joint operations of Iloilo’s Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) Task Force Overloading and the Philippine National Police (PNP) have netted a total of 162 violators of the provincial ordinance against overloading in the first two quarters of the year.
Trucks exceeding the maximum volume of quarry materials allowed by law are impounded under Provincial Ordinance 2011-087, which regulates the passage of cargo trucks on the provincial roads, engineer Norman Perez of PENRO’s mines division said in an interview on Tuesday, Aug. 27.
Perez said 99 violators were apprehended in the first quarter and 63 in the second quarter of the year, raising a total of P510,000 worth of fines.
“We have load limit on six-wheeler and 10-wheeler cargo trucks loaded with quarry materials. Each truck has a sticker on the side, which pegs the load limit, which means their load will only be limited to where the sticker is pasted,” he said.
Six-wheeler trucks are only allowed to carry 9 cubic meters of ordinary earth; 8 cubic meters of sand and gravel; or 4 cubic meters of basalt and limestone.
Meanwhile, 10-wheeler trucks are only allowed to load 13 cubic meters of ordinary earth; 11 cubic meters of sand and gravel; or 8 cubic meters of basalt and limestone.
Yellow stickers are assigned to ordinary earth; blue stickers, to sand and gravel; and red stickers, to basalt and limestone, he said.
Violators are fined PHP1,000 for the first offense, PHP3,000, for second offense; and PHP5,000, for third offense.
The impounded vehicles were turned over to the PNP and the local government unit (LGU) while the confiscated quarry materials were given to the LGU where the apprehension took place.
“The materials are forfeited in favor of the government. The LGU can use the quarry materials for its projects,” he said.
Haulers are also advised by PENRO to secure delivery receipts to assure that they have “legal sources” of quarry materials.
Delivery receipts should be fully accomplished as some of the haulers were caught not stipulating their sources and the date of the delivery.
“There are some who use a magic pen, (so) they can erase the details and they recycle the delivery receipts in the next trip. May we remind them that in every trip, they should secure delivery receipts from PENRO,” he said.
“Tipsters”, those who inform their fellow haulers that PENRO personnel are checking in a certain area, remain a challenge to the environment office.
“They use cellphones to inform others that we are apprehending erring haulers so they can evade fines,” Perez said.
He asked quarry operators and haulers to become more compliant with the anti-overloading ordinance in the next quarters of the year.
“They should follow the regulation in issuing delivery receipts and observe load limits in our provincial roads,” Perez said.PNA
