Tuesday, July 01, 2008 Strike cripples most routes in 3 cities
THE transport strike staged yesterday by the Nagkahiusang Drayber sa Sugbo (Nadsu) affected many routes in Metro Cebu although government officials and the protesters differed on the extent of the paralysis.
Nadsu claimed it paralyzed most of the routes in Metro Cebu but assessments of the effect of the protest action, which was lifted at 3 p.m. differed in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Talisay.
The Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) acknowledged that many routes in the city were heavily affected.
Citom Executive Officer Arnel Tancinco said 70 to 80 percent of intra-city routes were almost deserted, especially towards noon after those stationed in Nadsu “chokepoints” asked drivers still plying their routes to join them.
Nadsu’s Ruben Rama claimed there were routes where not one public utility jeepney (PUJ) plied while only around five percent of the usual number of units were seen picking up passengers in other routes.
He said they crippled public transportation in Barangays Inayawan, Basak, Quiot, Labangon, Bulacao, Talamban and Urgello.
Protesters claimed 98 percent of public transport in Mandaue was affected but the city’s traffic official placed it at only 60 percent, which was blunted by City Hall mobilizing all city-owned vehicles to ferry stranded passengers.
Routes going out of Mactan Island were crippled but the transport strike had less support from drivers of passenger multicabs within Lapu-Lapu City and Cordova town.
SPO4 Edgar Sagarino, chief of Lapu-Lapu City’s traffic division, said Nadsu paralyzed the Lapu-Lapu-Cebu route, but got only ten percent support from drivers in Lapu-Lapu and Cordova.
Only 70 percent of the Lapu-Lapu to Mandaue route was affected.
Nadsu failed to paralyze public transportation in Talisay City as only five percent of the drivers joined the protest, police said.
SPO4 Henry Obiso, Talisay City traffic police chief, said that operations of PUJs plying the Talisay-Tabunok-Cebu City route went back to normal after lunch.
Also, multicabs, buses and taxis made up for the Talisay jeepneys whose drivers joined the transport strike.
While the protest action got the support of militant groups under the umbrella of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), other transport organizations did not participate.
This after the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board 7 granted an additional 50-centavo provisional increase, raising to P7 the minimum jeepney fare.
Aside from a uniform nationwide minimum fare of P8, Nadsu and Bayan also wanted a P125 minimum wage increase, the repeal of the Downstream Oil Deregulation Law, and removal of the 12 percent value added tax on fuel.
And although the protesters did not get any of their demands, Perez said they considered the strike a success, because they were able to effectively make their concerns be heard.
Cebu City
“The City was able to field, in 11 routes affected, six Kaohsiung buses, 23 barangay vehicles from 15 barangays, seven Citom multicabs, 16 City multicabs, two Central Command six-by-six trucks,” said City Councilor Gerardo Carillo.
He said the most affected routes were those in Banilad and Talamban.
The City set up an action center at the Vice Mayor’s Office conference room, which also served as command center for the deployment of its vehicles.
More vehicles were deployed after Nadsu officially lifted the protest action at 3:15 p.m. because of the growing number of people waiting for a ride home, said Zapatera Barangay Captain Joemar Benedicto, who deployed the vehicles.
The Cebu City Government also decided to have “non-essential employees,” or those whose tasks could be done away with for the day, sent home at 3 p.m.
“Kadtong wala ray labot sa pag-respond nato sa strike, pwede ra manguli og sayo. Depende na sa department heads kinsa ang dapat magpabilin,” said City Administrator Francisco Fernandez.
Classes
But City Councilor Sylvan Jakosalem, chairman of the City Council committee on transportation, said the abrupt cancellation of classes yesterday compounded the problem caused by the strike.
Had the schools pushed through with the classes, the strike would have had very little impact, he said.
This explained why the Labangon, Katipunan, Guadalupe, Talamban, Bulacao and Banawa routes were partly paralyzed yesterday.
Although City Hall quickly fielded its fleet of Kaohsiung buses, trucks, multicabs and other vehicles, it was not able to pick
up all the stranded passengers since students came out of the schools almost at the same time.
Acting Mayor Michael Rama instructed the police to exercise maximum tolerance, and to be more alert after the strike when participating drivers would already be intoxicated.
At least six protesters, though, went overboard and violated Nadsu’s guidelines by allegedly placing suyak (spikes) on the path of PUJs whose drivers did not participate.
Mandaue
Sr. Supt. Rodil Calungsud, Mandaue City police chief, said no untoward incident happened in three “chokepoints” they closely watched: in barangay Tipolo near Petron station, corner of UN Ave. and Plaridel St., and near Park Mall.
Some 20 to 30 strikers manned these chokepoints waving banners and streamers.
Calungsud said stranded commuters were seen along AC Cortes and Highway Seno, even as Mayor Jonas Cortes immediately organized a Command/Action Center at the in City Hall ground floor.
Cortes deployed city-owned spider vehicles, two buses and dump trucks to ferry passengers and tapped two units of Ceres buses to augment city vehicles.
Lapu-Lapu, Talisay
In Lapu-Lapu, four Canter trucks and a Kaohsiong bus ferried stranded passengers for free with SM mall in Cebu City and the corner of AS Fortuna and Plaridel Sts. in Mandaue City as drop-off points.
The city also got a positive reply from its request to Natalie and Villahermosa bus liners to send 50 seats passenger buses.
In Talisay, only an estimated 50 Nadsu members staged a protest by the roadside near an electric utility firm in Bulacao.
Using a loud speaker mounted on a multicab, they called on their fellow drivers to join the transportation strike by not plying their route for the day.
Obiso said the protesters began grouping as early as 6 a.m. in time for the rush hour but they dispersed shortly before lunchtime.
To maintain order, traffic authorities deployed regular policemen and traffic enforcers along the highway’s strategic locations. (RHM/OCP/AIV/GC/LCR)
