“Itong mga units natin ay specialty vehicle trucks, isang utility truck para sa delivery ng relief goods, food pack, at isang animal control unit. Ang aming strategy is to give it to the barangay para mabilis ang serbisyo, importante ang ganitong mga specialty vehicles para mabilis ang serbisyo (These units are specialty vehicle trucks, a utility truck for the delivery of relief goods and an animal control unit. Our strategy is to give it to the local towns so they can render faster service to the people),” explains Senator Win Gatchalian.

A total of 61 vehicles composed of 42 units of the robust Foton Tornado 4.4C Mini Dump Truck for multi-purpose operations and 19 units of Foton Gratour Midi Trucks for animal control programs were personally turned over to Mayor Rex and Senator Win at the Valenzuela City Hall grounds.

“Palagay ko una na naman tayo sa mga lungsod sa buong Pilipinas na may sariling animal control units sa mga barangay (I believe we are again the first city in the country to have animal control units),” says Mayor Rex Gatchalian.

The customized Foton Gratour MT Animal Control Truck is equipped with an efficient 1.5-liter gasoline-powered engine, capable of producing 110 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and a max torque of 142 Nm at 4,500 rpm, and mated with a 5-speed manual transmission. It complies with the high international emissions standards of Euro V.

The Gratour MT Animal Control Truck can fit in the small streets of different barangays, which makes it a perfect unit for catching free-ranging urban dogs that threaten the safety of the citizens.

“Itong dump truck naman, actually nakuha namin ang ideya nito nitong pandemya (The idea of the dump truck came to me during the pandemic),” shares Senator Win, “By that time ang gusto naming ma-distribute ay 200,000 food packs in one week, kaya napag-usapan namin ni Mayor na kung may mga ganitong uri ng sasakyan, imbis na city hall ang magdedeliver, barangay na ang magpipick-up, mas mabilis. Pero ito po ay multipurpose rin kaya pwede itong gamitin sa iba pang aktibidad ng ating barangay (We wanted to distribute 200,000 food packs in one week, so Mayor and I discussed that with these types of vehicles, the barangays can be more pro-active. Plus the units are multi-purpose so the barangays can use them for other needs),” he added.

Powered by a Cummins ISF 3.8 diesel engine, the Foton Tornado 4.4C Mini Dump Truck is a robust vehicle with a max power output of 154 horsepower at 2,600 rpm and a max torque of 500 Nm at 1,200 to 1,900 rpm. It can deliver several tons of food packs with its payload capacity up to 4,590 kilograms, and can fit a large volume of relief goods in its 4-cubic meter dump box.