Saturday, June 28, 2008 Nadsu to hold transport strike on Monday; Shell hikes fuel prices by P1.50 today
DESPITE a recent order granting another 50-centavo provisional increase, raising to P7 the minimum fare in Central Visayas starting yesterday, a transport group is bent on holding a strike this Monday.
Nagkahiusang Drayber sa Sugbo (Nadsu) officials yesterday announced in a press conference with allied militant organizations that they will keep off the streets this Monday.
This, as prices of fuel products are expected to increase again this weekend—the 17th in the weekly adjustment implemented by oil companies for the past few months, ABS-CBN reported yesterday.
Pilipinas Shell spokesman Bobby Kanapi said the P1.50 increase took effect starting at 12:01 a.m. today.
The country’s biggest oil companies—Shell, Petron and Caltex–and small players Total and UniOil just increased last June 21 the prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene products by P1.50 per liter.
Kanapi said the weekly price hikes of oil products may continue until August.
The protest action on Monday will start at 1 a.m. and is Nadsu’s way of pressuring the government to grant their request to set the minimum fare at P8.
Since other organizations, like the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), are supporting the transport group’s decision, the strike is also meant to ask for a P125 hike in minimum wage.
Their demands also include repealing the Oil Deregulation Law and scrapping the 12 percent expanded value-added tax imposed on gasoline, said Arman Perez of party-list Bayan Muna.
Perez said that while they understand that the government and the public are focused on the mv Princess of the Stars tragedy, the plight of the drivers also needed attention.
“Naa puy tabangonon nga mga buhi nga hapit na pud mangamatay (The drivers, who are still living but are about to die, also need help),” he said referring to the drivers and operators who suffered at least 16 rounds of oil price increases since January.
Roy Opura, Nadsu chairman, guaranteed a “100 percent” participation of all member-drivers.
He, however, refused to divulge how many drivers compose the organization.
Opura said other transport organizations, particularly the Alyansa sa Nagkahi-usang Driver-Operator Alang sa Reporma (Andar) and the Cebu Integrated Transport Services Cooperative (Citrasco), are joining the protest.
Ruben Rama, Nadsu secretary-general, appealed for understanding, and asked school administrators to declare a holiday on Monday.
He said they will start the strike at 1 a.m. so students and employees will no longer go out of their homes and will no longer suffer from the lack of public transportation.
In separate interviews, however, Citrasco and Andar officials told Sun.Star Cebu that they are not joining Nadsu’s move, in cognizance of Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Boardo (LTFRB) 7 Director Romulo Bernar-des’ efforts to grant the second P0.50 provisional increase.
The LTFRB board en banc granted last May an additional P0.50 to increase the minimum fare to P6.50.
Yesterday, Bernardes released the order for the second provisional increase approved by LTFRB 7 Chairman Thompson Lantion and board members Maria Ellen Cabatu and Gerardo Pinili.
“This second provisional increase of the minimum PUJ fare rate in Region 7 only to P7 for the first five kilometers (is) effective June 27, 2008,” it read.
Attention
Operators of public utility jeepneys (PUJs), however, are still required to secure a certification from the LTFRB to inform the public of the increase.
Cebu City Councilor Gerardo Carillo, the city’s action officer, said that the transport strike will distract them from giving assistance to the families and relatives of passengers of mv Princess of the Stars that sank off Sibuyan island in Romblon last week.
“Ma-split ang atong personnel, kay magprepara na man sad ta aning strike imbis sa mga tawo ra sa assistance center sa (Cebu City) Sports Center (Our personnel will be divided since we have to attend to the needs of commuters during the strike),” he said.
The City, he said, has started conducting an inventory of vehicles that could be made available this Monday to transport stranded commuters.
Fuel, he said, will also provided by the City Government to owners of vehicles who will offer the use of their units to cater to commuters.
He said a traffic holiday is being considered, which, if implemented, means that PUJs could ply routes outside their travel lines just so they could cater to the most number of people.
Like in the past, the City will also distribute stubs that will be given to drivers who will continue plying their routes and refrain from participating in the strike.
The stubs give them the privilege of having their pending penalties with the City Traffic Operations Management erased from the records. (RHM/abs-cbnnews.com)
