Cargo drivers told: Drop off your goods in CSBT or else face non-renewal of cargo passes

Vegetables from Sibonga town in southern Cebu arrive at the Cebu South Bus Terminal, the designated wholesale bagsakan center or drop off point of produce from the towns in the province that are delivered to Cebu City. CDN Digital photo | Gerard Vincent Francisco

CEBU CITY, Philippines— Vehicles delivering produce and catch from the towns in Cebu province may face non-renewal of their cargo passes, which allows them to cross borders, if they continue to drop off their goods at the Carbon Public Market and Pasil Fish Port.

The Capitol has designated the Cebu South Bus Terminal as the lone wholesale bagsakan center or drop off point of the cargos coming from the towns into the city since April 23, 2020 to minimize interaction between the delivery crew and the vendors in Cebu City.

The measure was supposedly to minimize the risks of delivery personnel contracting the coronavirus disease from the crowd that they may interact with in the two markets.

But as of Monday, April 27, only the cargos from the towns of Barili, Sibonga, and Argao dropped off their goods at the CSBT.

The supposedly bulk of deliveries coming from Dalaguete and San Remigio continue to bring their produce and catch to Carbon and Pasil.

Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said this continued practice of the delivery personnel is posing greater risks for the towns and cities when they come from.

“Kung moadto mo magdeliver sa Carbon or sa Pasil, daghan kaayong mga tawo didto nga nagagikan sa nagkadilaing mga barangay nga daghan na pod nga positive cases nga wa mo nakaila. Inig uli ninyo mga driver, mga pahinante nga kuyog, way siguro nga nangatakdan na mo ug carrier na mo unya kamo na poy manakod,” Garcia said.

(If you continue to deliver your goods to Carbon or Pasil, you will encounter a lot of people there who are coming from different barangays that now have positive coronavirus cases. When you go home, you drivers and crew, you may already be carriers of the virus and possibly infect others in your community.)

Garcia said she has asked the mayors not to renew the cargo vehicle passes of those delivery trucks that continue to deliver their goods in Carbon and Pasil, instead of CSBT.

Delivery receipts are issued to delivery drivers who drop off their cargos in CSBT as proof that they delivered their goods in the terminal and not in the crowded markets.

Non-renewal of the passes would mean that the cargos will no longer be allowed to deliver their goods from the towns and to Cebu City. /bmjo