COLLEGE student Darth Jedi Dabon was among the commuters who had a hard time getting a ride in Mandaue City yesterday morning during the nationwide transport strike.
“It's not okay to be late, but we didn't have a choice. We still went to school even though we knew we would not arrive on time,” he said in Cebuano.
The school officials, however, told them that the checking of attendance and other school activities would be suspended yesterday, after the strike was announced last week.
Dabon, a third-year information and communication technology student at the Cebu Technological University-Cebu City, said he is in favor of phasing out 15-year-old public utility vehicles, adding that the move will do some good for the environment.
He said he believes the transport sector wanted to show, through their strike, that they play an important role in the daily lives of commuters.
Several waiting passengers ran towards approaching jeepneys and multicabs, and raced to find an empty seat.
Other commuters grabbed a taxi or hailed a motorcycle-for-hire so they wouldn't be late for work.
Christine Albaño, an online seller, said that she didn't have any income yesterday.
"I couldn't meet my buyers because I only commute. They also failed to meet up with me because there were no jeepneys," she told SunStar Cebu.
"But it'll be business as usual tomorrow. It's really hard for us who don't have cars when these things happen,” she said.