Roman Petila strains as he tightens the cargo strap around the truck that would carry some 12,000 to 13,000 tonnes of vegetables to Metro Manila.
For a truck driver such as Petila who makes a living transporting vegetables from La Trinidad town, Benguet, the decision to head down to Metro Manila was not easy. More than half of the province’s workforce is involved in vegetable and cut-flower farming, the report added.In the Cordillera region, Benguet is responsible for 90% of production of the aforementioned crops.
“Mahirap talaga. Pupunta ka du’n tapos mahawahan ka, kaya talagang sakripisyo,” he says. “Kaysa mag-stay ka rin sa bahay, ako na lang ang lumalabas ng bahay.”The trip back to Benguet is equally grueling. Truckers sometimes need to pull over even at night to check if their vehicles are in shape. This usually happens when they don’t get orders for these crops. Recently, local authorities advised them to go out and sell their produce every other day, which means some of the crops go unharvested.
For farmers, opportunities to sell are now scarce because the lockdown prohibits people from going out in public. It’s bizarre to see rows of trucks loaded to the top with vegetables harvested from all over Benguet and neighboring provinces. “Bankrap ang mga farmer ngayon,” he says, “kasi hindi lumabas ang gastos.”
“Pero kahit ’yung mabebenta, hindi makakabayad sa inutang. Kasi ang binenta namin ngayon hindi makakabayad sa utang,” Gudio says. “Kasi pinag-utangan namin, utang namin ’yun kailangan bayaran."“Dati dati ang presyo ng carrots noon P30 hanggang P20 per kilo. Ngayon P5,” he says, referring to the steep drop in prices.“’Pag pito ang anak mo tapos ang presyo ng carrots mo ay lima, gutom na ’yung iba, lalo na ’pag may nag-aaral na.
A lot of drivers had previously chosen not to make deliveries, it would have been the easy choice, since it was really scary but vegetable buyers might overlook them on future deliveries if they didn’t make these deliveries. They have food lane passes anyway. The food lane passes are given by the Department of Agriculture to help make their trips faster through the many checkpoints along the route to their destination.
Petila says he gets text messages from other truckers looking for work. He says they can’t rely on charity alone; they need to find a job, any job, to put food on the table. Temporary trading posts were set up to accommodate the number of trucks at any one time, because they still have to undergo precautionary measures in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the Benguet Agri-Pinoy Vegetable Trading Center in La Trinidad, Benguet, vegetables are packed in plastics for inspection.A driver assistant wears gloves while waiting for the inspection to finish.With the produce inspected, packed and loaded, the 6-hour journey to Balintawak starts.