Angeles City commuters stranded

ANGELES CITY — Hundreds of students and employees were stranded here after jeepneys, which took passengers to schools and offices early in the morning, vanished at noon time.

Police officials at Camp Olivas in San Fernando City deployed military vehicles to transport stranded commuters.

About 50 percent of jeepney drivers in Floridablanca, Guagua, Lubao, Porac, and Mabalacat also grounded their vehicles starting at 10 a.m.

Leaders of the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (PISTON), who launched the transport strike in Pampanga, estimated that Angeles was "90 percent paralyzed" by the strike.

PISTON Pampanga coordinator Waldy Santos said that jeepney drivers plying routes from Capas, Bamban, and Concepcion in Tarlac to Angeles also joined the strike to press for the rollback of fuel prices, the scrapping of the oil deregulation law, the increase of the minimum fare by P1, and government subsidy for cost of insurance, fuel emission and drug testing, and the scrapping of the P50 computer fee every time they renew driver’s licenses or register their vehicles.

Most schools in Angeles and other affected areas in Pampanga remained closed yesterday, although many students were not aware of the transport strike.

Santos said PISTON decided to push through with the transport strike yesterday after local jeepney drivers insisted on it. He said that the net take home pay of jeepney drivers in Pampanga is only about P100 for 12 hours of driving.

"The strike was only a kick off for a bigger one should the government continue to ignore the welfare of the millions of public utility drivers in the country," he added.