IATF suspends Albay truck ban

The Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF) in the Bicol region has ordered the suspension of the implementation of the truck ban ordinance passed by the Albay provincial government in February this year.

Lawyer Anthony Nuyda, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Bicol regional director and the concurrent Bicol IATF chairperson, has issued BIATF Resolution No. 2020-19 suspending the Albay truck ban ordinance saying the ordinance runs counter to the IATF Omnibus Guidelines on Community Quarantine.

Nuyda said the BIATF assessment concluded that the truck ban would affect the transport of all types of cargoes supporting the local economy of the province and other Bicol provinces as well as areas in Visayas and Mindanao regions.

According to the BIATF resolution, “the unnecessary delay would be more devastating to other local economies which cargoes are transported through Albay province.”

The BIATF cited Section 7 of the Omnibus Procedures on Community Quarantine providing procedures for interzonal and intrazonal movement requiring unhampered movement of all types of cargoes by land, air, or sea within areas place under any form of community quarantine.

The task force unanimously resolved upon the motion of the Philippine National Police and seconded by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to order the suspension of the truck ban ordinance signed by Albay Gov. Al Francis Bichara last February.

Earlier, hundreds of trader in Bicol slammed the Albay truck ban ordinance calling the order adversarial to economic growth as businesses are still recovering from the negative impact due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

The Albay Chamber of Commerce Industry (ACCI) in a letter signed by 261 members has strongly rejected the ordinance and urged Bichara to cancel the truck ban regulation.