AMENDMENTS should be made to Cagayan de Oro City’s traffic code to enable the effective enforcement of the citywide truck ban during rush hour traffic.

 

In a special report during Monday afternoon’s (Sept. 15) regular session of the 21st City Council, Councilor Maximo Rodriguez III said the continued presence of eight wheel cargo trucks in areas like Poblacion, Cogon, Carmen and even Masterson Avenue during the rush hours of 5 pm to 9 pm have aggravated the city’s traffic congestion. This despite a provision mandating a truck ban during these specific hours.

 

Rodriguez said a provision in the 2007 Traffic Code exempts cargo truck traffic during the regulated time at CM Recto Avenue provided this area is only used as a transit by cargo trucks heading to Butuan City and Iligan City. ‘Cagayan de Oro City is the gateway of northern Mindanao (where goods and services flow through 24/7),’ he said.

 

But Rodriguez cited a local daily’s report which mentioned that unscrupulous truck drivers and operators exploited the traffic code provision as a loophole to claim they are in transit. ‘There are photos showing these trucks parking in a major road creating a traffic bottleneck,’ he said.

 

For his part Councilor Enrico Salcedo, who chairs the 21st City Council’s committee on public utilities, said they held a multi-stakeholder meeting last July to discuss amendments to the city’s traffic code. ‘(These stakeholders) will present their proposals for amendments (sometime next month),’ Salcedo said in Visayan./Text by SC with photos sourced from City Council Facebook page