Transport strike cripples Angeles

ANGELES CITY — Thousands of workers and students were stranded here yesterday as jeepney and mini-bus drivers plying routes from neighboring towns pursued their strike which they launched last Friday to protest rerouting plans imposed by Mayor Carmelo Lazatin.

Several schools suspended classes as drivers of mini-buses from Magalang town vowed to continue their strike for the rest of the week.

Businesses in Magalang, Mabalacat and this city have been affected as thousands of employees failed to report to work.

Lazatin, however, said the rerouting plan was to pave the way for the use of a common terminal now being rushed in Barangay Pampanga here for public utility vehicles coming from outside this city.

He said the plan was designed to decongest traffic and was in accordance with a city board resolution filed way back in 1997.

While jeepneys plying the city did not join the strike, businesses here were affected because many of their employees reside in neighboring towns.

This city’s population of about 300,000 swells to almost a million during the daytime because of students and workers from adjoining towns.

"The rerouting plan is only experimental. If it proves ineffective, then we will scrap it," Lazatin said, adding that the experiment will be tried for the rest of the week.

Commuters, however, are the ones most affected by both the strike and the rerouting plan. "Directing jeepneys and mini-buses to the common terminal would mean we have to take two or more rides before reaching our destinations instead of spending only the minimum fare for just one ride," said Randy Isip, a resident of Barangay Sto. Domingo here.

"The plan might solve the traffic problem but the timing is not just right. The prices of basic commodities have risen because of the slowdown in the national economy, and because of the rerouting plan, transport cost for local folk would double or even triple," he added. — Ding Cervantes