[SIZE="4"]Transport strike fizzles in Metro Manila[/SIZE]
But protests vs oil spikes cripple Angeles, Davao
By Inquirer Bureaus
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:09:00 04/01/2011
MANILA, Philippines — The transport strike called by militant groups to protest high fuel prices was hardly felt in Metro Manila, but it stalled traffic in Angeles City in Pampanga province and major urban centers and provinces in Mindanao.
The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) said Metro Manila was spared from any significant disruption in mass transport services as the United Organizations of Drivers and Operators Nationwide (Piston) limited their protest actions.
This came amid threats by the LTFRB that operators of jeepneys and other forms of mass transport would lose their licenses to operate if the protests against high fuel prices resulted in commuters losing their means to get around the metropolis.
Commuters in Metro Manila went about their daily routine despite the “transport caravan” organized by Piston.
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said the protest action did not paralyze transportation in the metropolis as other transport groups did not participate in the activity.
“But I think it was really not their purpose (to paralyze transport system),” MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino said.
“They might just want to ventilate their grievances,” he said.
Piston said there really was no intention to paralyze transportation in Metro Manila.
George San Mateo, Piston secretary general, said the next protest action would be bigger.
“This is just a dry run. If our demands are not addressed, we will call for a bigger action,” Mateo told the Philippine Daily Inquirer at the Welcome Rotunda in Quezon City.
Demands
Mateo said the protesters were demanding the scrapping of the oil deregulation law and the value-added tax on petroleum products, and a stop to overpricing by oil firms.
San Mateo earlier said that at least 200 public utility jeepneys were joining the caravan. But based on MMDA monitoring, only 39 jeepneys, 29 Asian Utility Vehicles or “FX” taxis and four private vehicles joined the caravan.
The caravan made its way through Quezon Avenue from Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City, stopping at the Welcome Rotunda at the boundary of Manila and Quezon City, and proceeded to the Chino Roces (formerly Mendiola) Bridge near Malacañang where the protesters staged a program.
MMDA placed the number of demonstrators at the Chino Roces Bridge at about 500 to 1,000.
Reason for not joining
In Caloocan City, jeepneys plied their normal routes.
Edmundo Avila, who makes daily trips from Sangandaan to Manila Central University and vice versa, told the Inquirer that he did not join the transport caravan for economic reasons.
“I don’t want to lose P500, which my family needs,” Avila said. “Besides, my operator does not want to have his franchise canceled,” he said.
Bernadette Baylon, a public school teacher who commutes daily from Monumento to Malabon City, said she did not feel the effects of Piston’s activity.
“I left early today for my appointment thinking I would have a hard time getting a ride,” she said.
There were no reports of any stranded passengers in Quezon City Thursday morning.
Angeles paralyzed
It was a different story in Angeles City.
Thousands of commuters on their way to work, school or the market were stranded at 7 a.m. on Thursday when about 20,000 public utility drivers stopped plying their routes.
“We have paralyzed (public transportation) 100 percent,” Piston spokesperson Rey Gueco told the Inquirer.
Drivers protesting the 10 oil price increases since January belong to 14 jeepney organizations and 208 tricycle groups operating within the city, Gueco said.
LTFRB official Manuel Iway gave a different assessment of the strike in Angeles City.
Iway said just a fourth of the routes in the city were paralyzed, blaming it on spikes said to be made of bent nails and cut-up steel sheets.
“A lot of jeepneys have suffered flat tires because of this. They are afraid to ply their routes,” Iway said.
He said 40 percent of routes in Cagayan de Oro City in Mindanao were paralyzed due to the spikes.
Iway said appropriate action would be taken against any jeepney operator found to have scattered the spikes.
Chief Supt. Allan Purisima, Central Luzon police director, said no transport strikes were mounted in the rest of Pampanga, and the provinces of Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac and Zambales.
Baguio City
In Baguio City, local Piston members scheduled a noise barrage at 4 p.m.
But city streets were jammed at 8:40 a.m. by more than 300 taxicab drivers, who mounted a surprise march of their own to pressure transport officials into granting a P40 flag-down rate for the city or a P15 provisional increase in the flag down rate.
“We are not part of the Piston protest but we share their issues,” said Emmanuel Carantes, the taxi operator who organized the protest march.
Some of the marchers heckled taxi drivers who steered clear of the rally.
Sorsogon
In Sorsogon City, at least a hundred people staged a protest at Capitol Park and a march on the main thoroughfares.
Eduardo Ferreras, president of Piston-Sorsogon, said the protest action was part of a build-up activity for a nationwide transport strike on April 13.
In Roxas City, the Hugpong Transport Group held a noise barrage at 3 p.m.
Some 300 members of the United Negros Drivers Operators Center (Undoc) joined a protest rally in Bacolod City.
Undoc has been asking the Department of Energy to address the unfair pricing of petroleum products, which are P4 to P5 per liter higher in Bacolod and Negros Occidental than those sold in Metro Manila.
Successful in Davao
In Davao City, the strike was 94-percent successful, said Mayor Sara Duterte.
“If that kind of paralysis was their objective, then they were successful,” she said.
In some areas of the city, motorists complained that their tires were punctured. Duterte said she had ordered the police to identify the culprits.
Edil Gonzaga, secretary general of Transmision-Piston for Southern Mindanao, denied that his group was behind the scattered spikes that punctured the tires of dozens of vehicles, including a car owned by a TV network.
In Davao del Sur, the inter-town transport system serviced by public utility jeeps (PUJs), also ground to a halt.
In the Caraga region, made up of the two Surigao and Agusan provinces, 95 percent of the transport system was paralyzed by the strike. Despite the strike, government offices, banks and commercial establishments remained open for business.
In the nearby cities of Surigao and Bayugan, the public transportation system was also crippled.
Frustration
Avel Javier, secretary general of Bayan Muna in Caraga, said the successful strike reflected the people’s frustration with the government’s inability to regulate the oil industry.
In Cagayan de Oro, the streets were almost empty. Chief Inspector Lemuel Gonda said the transport strike paralyzed up to 90 percent of the city’s central business district.
“Only a handful of vehicles, mostly private and delivery vans could be seen,” he said. He noted that the participation of drivers in the strike was “massive.”
In Barangay Puerto, which serves as the city’s gateway to the provinces of Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental, buses were noticeably absent from the road.
In Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay, even “habal-habal” (motorcycles without sidecars) drivers joined the strike.
But in Iligan City, taxi drivers refused to join the strike, saying it would not do them any good. Despite this, the transport system was almost paralyzed, according to police Senior Supt. Celso Regencia.
In Zamboanga City, residents said they were not aware of the strike even after some drivers had stopped going out. June Patricia Ausejo, a college student, said PUJs were scarce.
Ed Mingala, president of the Federation of Land Transportation in Zamboanga (Feltranz), said his group did not aim to paralyze traffic in the city.
“The strike was not meant to hamper the mobility of our people or commuters, that is why we scheduled the strike from 9 a.m. to 12 noon,” he said.
Reports from Paolo G. Montecillo, Kristine Felisse Mangunay, Julie M. Aurelio, Tina G. Santos and Nancy C. Carvajal in Manila; Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon; Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon; Joey Gois, Inquirer Southern Luzon; Felipe Celino and Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas; and Jeffrey Tupas, Orlando Dinoy, Eldie Aguirre, Carlo Agamon, Franklin Caliguid, Bobby Lagsa, Richel Umel, Julie Alipala and Dennis Santos, Inquirer Mindanao