With the San Juanico Bridge still restricted to light vehicles, the Office of Civil Defense (OSD) in Eastern Visayas is now eyeing another free roll-on, roll-off (RoRo) service, this time to Eastern Samar.
This, as the current free RoRo ferry service between Tacloban City and Amandeyahan Port in Basey, Samar has proved inadequate to handle the large volume of trucks that had been affected by the San Juanico Bridge load limit restrictions.
In a media interview, OCD Eastern Visayas Regional Director Lord Byron Torrecarion bared plans to add another free RoRo trip between Tacloban City and Guiuan, Eastern Samar.
“Despite the free RoRo trip between Tacloban to Amandayehan Port in Basey, there's still a price spike in some parts of Eastern Samar. Through the Libreng Sakay, we want to minimize the impact of the San Juanico Bridge especially on rice, perishable goods, and other essential products,” Torrecarion explained.
The OCD is just waiting for some documentary requirements before the launch of the free Tacloban-Eastern Samar trip, he added.
The plan is to launch two daily trips between the city to Guiuan, a journey that can take four to five hours.
On June 18, the Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Cell Eastern Visayas Task Force San Juanico, led by the OCD, launched the “Libreng Sakay” (free ride) program at the Tacloban port.
The program has been providing free trips to cargo trucks loaded with fresh produce, rice, fish, fuel, and other commodities critical to maintaining food security and commercial activity in Leyte and Samar provinces.
Among the priority products are fresh and frozen food, fruits and vegetables, livestock and poultry, rice, fuel, and other goods and supplies, as identified by the Department of Agriculture, Department of Trade and Industry, and Department of Energy.
“The program has been offering free passage to suppliers of essential and perishable goods to sustain the supply chain of Eastern Visayas. It has significantly eased logistical bottlenecks affecting key commodities in the region,” Torrecarion said.
Covered by the program are cargo trucks and delivery vehicles officially transporting essential and perishable goods such as food, medicine, water, animal feed, and fuel.
Government and humanitarian vehicles on official duty carrying relief goods or logistical support for disaster response operations are also included.
(With report from PNA)
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