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Thursday, March 04, 2004
Editorial: A tricky situation
Although we support the jeepney drivers' demand for a fare increase to help them keep up with the increase in oil prices, their means of carrying or pushing their demand is unacceptable. A strike only causes a lot of inconvenience and disrupts work and classes.
WHEN President Arroyo ordered the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to cancel the franchises of transport operators who joined Monday's nationwide strike, she may not have realized it, but she has put herself in a tricky situation.
If the DOTC fails to carry out the President's order, it only goes to show that the government is all bark but no bite, so to speak. But if government cancels the franchises of the erring transport operators, it shows that the Arroyo administration has the political will to punish law violators. It's a case of damn if you will, damn if you don't.
But by canceling the franchises of jeepney operators who joined the strike would also mean that there would be lesser jeepneys and this would make commuting for hundreds of thousands of Metro Manila residents more difficult and time-consuming.
Let's face it, jeepneys are among the cheapest modes of transportation in this megalopolis. For only P4 or P8 at the most, you can go to any destination. Compare it to the P10 to P20 fare in the Light Railway Transit (LRT) or Metro Railway Transit (MRT), P10 to P15 as tricycle fare or P9 to P15 as bus fare.
Jeepney operators and drivers, however, should realize that they have a big responsibility to the commuting public. Under the certificate of public conveyance issued to them "applicants shall not resort to cessation of service as a sign or demonstration of protest against any government decision or action under pain of suspension or cancellation of the authority to operate granted by the board."
Those issued a certificate of public conveyance should "not tolerate, allow or authorize personnel to join others committing acts prejudicial to the riding public, including but not limited to paralyzing transport services by intimidation, coercion or violence. And under the laws also, the action that can be taken by the LTFRB (Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board) can be summary in nature."
Although we support the jeepney drivers' demand for a fare increase to help them keep up with the increase in oil prices, their means of carrying or pushing their demand is unacceptable. A strike only causes a lot of inconvenience and disrupts work and classes.
(March 4, 2004 issue)
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