NEARLY 300 private and government-owned vehicles in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu will be deployed today to make sure that passengers will not be stranded during the nationwide transport strike.
About 700 members of transport group and party-list Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (Piston) are set to stop all their operations today from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“This is our way of showing our protest against the government’s modernization program. About 99 percent of the jeepneys in the country will be gone because of it, so imagine how many of our fellows will lose income,” Piston Cebu Chapter head Greg Perez told SunStar Cebu.
The demonstration, organized by transport groups Stop and Go Coalition, No to Jeepney Phase Out Coalition and Piston, is their response to the government’s alleged inaction to their appeal to amend the current version of the modernization program, which provides for the replacement of jeepneys over 15 years old.
The strike will not only happen in Cebu, but in over 20 municipalities and cities.
Perez said that aside from the strike, they will also be marching from the St. Joseph Parish Church in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City to the Land Transportation Franchise Regulatory Board (LTFRB) 7 office, where they will stage a rally at 3 p.m.
Piston will be the only transport group that will be joining the demonstration in Cebu.
The Cebu Integrated Transport Service Multipurpose Cooperative (Citrasco) and the National Confederation of Tansport Workers Union-Visayas chapter have pronounced that their operations will continue.
Citrasco president Ryan Yu said that although they sympathize with Piston’s cause, they have “not seen enough basis to inconvenience the riding public.”
“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,” he said.
In preparation, the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu have readied several vehicles and have tapped private service providers to ferry passengers.
All City-owned vehicles of the three local government units will be taking passengers for free, while the private service providers will be charging a P10 fare.
In Lapu-Lapu, Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office head Andy Berame said the City will station two buses, four barangay trucks, and five Ceres buses at the local terminal to ferry passengers to and from Lapu-Lapu to Cebu City.
The Mandaue City Government, on the other hand, will be fielding six L300 vans, two flatbed trucks along with the two buses provided by the LTFRB. The City has also reserved coasters and dump trucks from the barangays.
In Cebu City alone, a total of more than 200 vehicles will be deployed in several areas to cater to the riding public.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña, in a Facebook post, added that metered taxis, Grab and Uber Cars, and My Buses will also be ferrying passengers.