GUIGUINTO, Bulacan—Police now man the national highways in this town as officials ban passage of overloaded trucks as part of the local authorities strict implementation of Republic Act 8794 or the Anti-Overloading Law to help protect and maintain national roads.
Since early this year, Guiguinto Mayor Agatha Paula Cruz directed the town police to install additional anti-overloading checkpoints.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) first district engineering office headed by Henry Alcantara has been operating a weighing scale checkpoint in Tabang, Guiguinto which targets overloaded trucks of palay from Northern and Central Luzon bound to InterCity Rice Mill in Bocaue including other overloaded trucks of sand, aggregates, etc bound to Metro Manila and other areas.
However, the mayor said, the protection of the national roads is not the sole responsibility and duty of the DPWH especially that overloaded trucks continue to swarm the MacArthur highway and the Maharlika highway, the two major national roads in their town that connect Bulacan to the rest of Central Luzon and Metro Manila.
“Huwag sa Guiguinto, hindi kayo pwede dito sa Guiguinto. Hindi namin kayo papayagang dumaan dito kapag overload trucks kayo,” (Don’t do it in Guiguinto, you are not allowed here in Guiguinto. We will not allow you to traverse in our roads if you are overloaded and oversized), she told reporters in an interview a week ago.
Overloaded trucks traverse the MacArthur and the Maharlika highway to avoid the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) which strictly implements the RA 8794.
Police Col. Jowilouwie Bilaro, chief of police of Guiguinto said an 18-men police team, 9 each every 12-hour, are assigned at the foot of Tabang bridge (in front of Puregold Tabang) in Sta. Cruz, to go after overloaded trucks. Trucks passage, he said are between 2-4pm, 10-12pm and 6-8 am.
Bilaro said in 50-100 trucks that traverse the highways during night hours, only a handful or just 2-3 are not overloaded, and the rest are all violators.
Implementing RA 8794 and the town’s local ordinance, the police fines violators P500 for the first offense and P1,000 for the second. All violators are sent back and are strictly not allowed to pass through, Bilaro said.
According to the police chief, anti-overloading truck duty policemen also serve as part of their anti-criminality police visibility approach in the busy streets of the town.
Police MSgt. Roel De Guzman, one of the team leaders of the two shifts of checkpoint teams said an overloaded truck of cement they also encountered exceeds the said 13.5 ton limit because it reaches up to 48-60 tons.
“They had no choice, we are here ahead of the weighing scale checkpoint. They have no other recourse but to return to where they came from. As long as we are here, they cannot traverse Guiguinto MacArthur highway,” he told the Inquirer.
The heavy damages in the MacArthur highway including in the Maharlika Highway had earned for Bulacan the moniker “lubakan” (the juggled letters of the name of the province Bulacan). Over the years, the Guiguinto section along the 36 kilometer stretch of MacArthur highway from City of Meycauayan to Calumpit passing along Marilao, Bocaue, Balagtas and Malolos had been the heavily damaged portions.
“Itsura pa lang nakikita na natin na overloaded, ang tataas ng mga sidings and walls ng trucks, (By just merely looking, we can already see that the trucks are overloaded, the walls and sidings of the truck are too high), the mayor said.
The DPWH since 2022 had started to rehabilitate the said heavily damaged areas. The Bocaue area of the MacArthur highway since early this year has been smooth now. The areas in Guiguinto had started being rehabilitated.
If not seriously given attention, the newly rehabilitated roads will again be at their worst to the detriment of our motorists, our economy, our people, the mayor reiterated, that’s why she ordered the police to also prioritize manning Guiguinto’s national highways from overloaded trucks.
However, Bulacan Fifth District Ambrosio Cruz Jr., wanted to amend RA 8794 to further strengthen its implementation. Cruz had filed House Bill 2949 on August 1, 2022 which seeks to amend and increase the penalty on violators of RA 8794 or the Anti-Overloading Law. He wanted
“Truck operators and haulers tamper the Gross Vehicle Weight or misrepresent the vehicle in order to secure permits or trailer drivers adjust the size of the wheels or convert the trucks and trailers to a 10-wheeler to a 12-wheeler or 18-wheeler truck without proper classification. This is against the maximum allowable axle load of 13,500 kilograms of 13.5 metric ton, already the highest in Asia,” the congressman said.
