There’s something wrong about the weighing scale set up by the Department of Public Works & Highways in barangay Tamisu in Bais City.
At first glance, it looks like a normal government facility which weighs passing trucks to ensure against overloading. To some extent, it does.
But to a large extent, it doesn’t. And that is where the problem comes in.
Not every truck gets to be weighed because the trucks may not pass the weighing scale even though they use the very same highway the DPWH seeks to protect.
For the two sugar mills in Bais City and Manjuyod, the Central Azucarera de Bais and the United Robina Sugar Milling Corp., this issue is not just a matter of who is obeying the law or not. This has become a business issue.
One reality is that trucks loaded with sugarcane are almost always overloaded. And the weighing scale is in between the two sugar mills. So to avoid being ticketed and having to pay a hefty fine, sugarcane trucks coming from the south mill with CAB and not with URSUMCO.
Likewise, sugar farmers north of Bais City will logically choose to mill with URSUMCO than with CAB, although this would still put the URSUMCO at a disadvantage because of the smaller amount of cane from the northern towns.
Or, if stories from the truck drivers themselves are to be believed, the condition is very ripe for graft and corruption. Drivers say they bribe their way through the weighing scale to avoid being weighed and fined for overloading.
We’re not justifying the practice of overloading. But we certainly are against the unequal implementation of the law.
If government has to ensure that no overloaded trucks pass through its roads, they have to have more than one weighing scale, placed strategically along the national highway.
If they cannot install enough weighing scales, the government should better stop this weighing business.
The law should be implemented equally or there should be none at all.
