A shot of the Cebu International Port of the Cebu Ports Authority in Cebu City. CDN Digital photo | Brian J. Ochoa
CEBU CITY, Philippines — In an effort to decongest traffic in major thoroughfares of northern Metro Cebu, local officials decided to readjust the schedule for releasing and pulling out of cargoes at Cebu International Port (CIP).
A report from Sugbo News, the media-arm of the Cebu Provincial government, announced that Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, representatives from the Cebu Port Authority (CPA), Bureau of Customs (BOC), truckers associations, Land Transportation Office (LTO), Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB), and local chief executives agreed to make adjustments in moving out cargoes from CIP.
Instead at 3 p.m., from Mondays to Fridays, goods held at the port will be released at nighttime, from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. the next day, from Mondays to Sundays.
This new policy will take effect on January 15, 2021.
The Capitol decided to intervene to address traffic woes still hounding the national highways covering Mandaue City, and the towns of Consolacion and Liloan.
Garcia, on January 7, called for another meeting with local and national government officials to discuss the matter, and where they pointed out that the volume of trucks plying the highways in daytime contributed to heavy traffic in northern Metro Cebu.
“The traffic congestion that is happening during the daytime is affecting everyone. For those that are in private vehicles going to their work or their offices, they spend more time on the road than in the office itself because they have to leave early or else they would be late,” said Garcia.
Victor Caindec, director of LTO-7, was also quoted in the same report, suggesting to local officials that regulating the volume of traffic could help alleviate traffic problems there.
“We can regulate the volume (referring to vehicles on the road) but we cannot stop the volume,” he said.
The decision to move the releasing and pulling-out hours of cargoes in CIP was also made in line with a uniform truck ban imposed in the towns of Consolacion and Liloan which will run from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.
“This is to ensure the truckers association in Cebu can still fulfill their deliverables while the Cebu Provincial government implements a truck ban and other measures to ease up traffic build-up in Consolacion and Liloan towns,” the report added.
CIP, located at North Reclamation Area (NRA) in Cebu City, formed part of Port of Cebu, and is one of the busiest ports outside Luzon.
From January to July in 2020, CPA registered having handled over 32.7 million metric tons (MMT) of cargoes both in its domestic and international ports. /dbs
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