It looks like the global tensions arising from the Middle East conflict have just gotten worse. Just the other day, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued Executive Order 110, placing the entire country under a state of national emergency and authorizing a package of government measures to mitigate the effects of the oil price spikes.
Among the sectors cited as critical to the nation’s stability is transportation, which is being threatened by disruptions of petroleum supplies.
Already, drivers of public utility vehicles have grown restless over the fuel price surge, demanding relief through fare increases. But to prevent a free-falling inflation, the President has suspended fare increases, believing that it would correspondingly spike the prices of prime commodities.
Drivers’ groups have thus threatened to wage a nationwide transport strike for two days this week. The protest move will reportedly include drivers of public utility jeepneys, ride-hailing services, UV Express vans, motorcycle taxis and truckers who are complaining of low take-home incomes due to the continued oil price hikes. This, despite various forms of relief and assistance being offered by national agencies and local government units.
As a former student activist, I have had a long history of organizing protest actions that included strikes. Those who know me from way back can attest to how I have become a familiar figure in that Colon St. intersection where rallies were made in the 1980s. Whether in schools, in the streets, in factories or in the countryside, I did have my fair share of protest activities.
Back in the day, strikes were effective in immobilizing a community, such as the Welgang Bayan that paralyzed Cebu for three days in 1985. When transport stopped, schools and offices closed down along with business establishments. Successfully crippling the economy meant that the government lost and the protesters won. Things were much simpler then.
But our world today is no longer the same. Transport strikes do not anymore paralyze the economy like they used to. When public transport stops, offices impose work-from-home arrangements. Schools adopt online classes, with some even conducting asynchronous or hybrid learning schemes. Shopping or ordering food can, meanwhile, be done by cellphones.
In fact, I highly doubt that those who are calling for a strike will be able to convince habal-habal motorcycle and e-trike drivers to join them. While they are also affected by the oil price surge, these drivers who comprise thousands of individual motorists will stand to gain more from passengers who would be willing to pay higher fares just to get to their destinations on time.
Which brings us to the next point: passengers nowadays are more interested in swift and convenient travels than in joining the strikers’ chorus. Sure, they might be sympathetic to the transport sector, but they do have classes to attend, tests to take, jobs to do, things to buy and transactions to make, which require that public transportation be available, not absent.
I’m not against drivers exercising their democratic rights; I truly believe they have the right to be heard just like the rest of us. But these days, they ought to exercise their right to protest in more creative but less disruptive ways. What used to be effective before no longer works now, so they must consider new methods of protesting.