THE nationwide transport strike yesterday pushed through.
In my neck of the woods, there was no avoiding the fact that fewer public utility jeepneys plied the streets. That was obvious by the many commuters who were lined up on the sidewalks hoping to catch a ride.
In Cebu City, the City Government fielded Kaoshiung buses to ferry passengers to their destinations. For free.
A couple of Ceres buses were also spotted on the Ban-Tal corridor picking up the stranded so I don’t know if that was part of the plan. I heard they charged a fixed rate of P10. So did V-hires.
I’m sure a lot colorum vehicles and habal-habal drivers were having a field day.
It would have been better if the City heeded Malacañang’s order to suspend classes, but it didn’t. On matters like these, though, the final decision rests on the local government unit, which has autonomy and which knows the real situation on the field.
Local officials were confident that fewer jeepney operators and drivers would be stupid enough to paralyze the city’s transport system and inconvenience thousands and thousands of students and workers and your basic everyday Juan and Juana going about their daily business.
Anyway, the mayor, in a Facebook post, said that metered taxis, Grab and Uber cars and My Buses would also be operating.
I doff my hat off to Citrasco, its head Ryan Yu and its members who decided to sit this one out. “We won’t be joining the activity and our 1,000 units will continue to operate all over Cebu for the duration of the protest,” Yu told SunStar Cebu’s Rona T. Fernandez.
Apparently, they had not seen “enough basis to inconvenience the riding public.” Unlike the other transport group Piston, whose members had to be restrained from occupying the highway in the Shopwise area down south yesterday morning. They were urging those who didn’t join the strike to stop driving.
To those who still don’t know, the protest is all about a provision in the government’s current PUV modernization program that disallows all public utility vehicles that are 15 years and older from plying their routes. And yes, the provision also includes buses and vans.
Piston, Stop and Go Coalition and the No to Jeepney Phase-out Coalition believe small jeepney operators and drivers are being singled out.
But why would they think this? How many of their members actually own vehicles that are 15 years and older? Because, if they read the fine print, the provision only targets vehicles that are 15 years and older. That’s it.
Their actions yesterday proved that they are only looking out for themselves, failing to take into account what the public deserves, and that is a safe and comfortable ride..