Successful transport strike in W. Visayas

The public transport strike in Western Visayas entered its second day yesterday, almost totally paralyzing the flow of vehicles. This time, in the case of Bacolod, the UNDOC took the unprecedented step of asking private motorists to cooperate with their protest against the continuous hike in gasoline and diesel prices.

Public transport was also paralyzed Thursday in the Iloilo, Aklan, Capiz provinces with public utility vehicles staying off the streets and roads to protest the oil price hikes.

The PNP in Negros Occidental admitted that the two-day transportation strike paralyzed 96 percent of public transport in Bacolod City, although police contended that the protesters did not succeed in winning the majority of workers in towns and cities of the province.

But yesterday morning, radio reports indicated that more drivers in southern Negros Occidental had joined the protest, especially in Kabankalan City and further south.

Jessie Ortega, secretary-general of the United Negros Drivers and Operations Center, said the first day of the strike was a smashing success.

He claimed that 99 percent of public transport in Bacolod and 90 percent of public vehicles outside the capital cooperated with the protest.

In Iloilo, Piston-Iloilo president Edgar Salara declared the sentiments of jeepney drivers and operators against the failure of the government to regulate oil prices.

Piston was just one of the many public transport groups that refused to ply the streets of Iloilo province and the city.

Although the education department did not suspend classes, only a handful of students and teachers attended classes. With the empty rooms, schools had to close down.

That was the case of Andres Bonifacio Elementary School in Bacolod where eight pupils simply waited for their sundo at the school entrance when their teachers failed to take a ride to the school.

But there were also ugly incidents. In Bacolod, some private vehicles were reportedly flagged down by “activists” at the corner of Araneta Avenue and Magsaysay street near the Goldenfields commercial complex, and asked to desist from going onwards.

Some of these picketers were reportedly intimidating private vehicle owners with “iron bars.” Among those reportedly harassed were taxi and jeepney drivers who kept ferrying passengers.

But, pointed out Armando Toga of the Negros Daily Bulletin, there were no policemen around to act on the harassment complaints.

Toga cited the case of some rallyists ordering the passengers of jeepneys to walk instead. Most of them, according to text messages received by Toga from friends and acquaintances, were actually members of militant groups and not legitimate public transport drivers.

Overall, however, there were no major disturbances, although Gov. Joseph Marañon expressed hope that the public transport drivers would call off their strike yesterday if the government had already responded to their clamor for relief from rising fuel prices.

The big losers were business establishments in the strike-affected areas. In Bacolod City, Robinson’s, SM mall and Lopue’s East reported a major drop in income from shoppers.

In Kalibo, even tricycles stayed off the streets. Most schools called it a day when hardly any schoolchildren appeared for classes.

The Hugpong Transport Alliance of Capiz also claimed that 95 percent of public transport workers joined the strike. This contrasted sharply with the spectacle in Metro Manila where only Piston staged its protest by staying off the streets.

Even Roxas City tricycle drivers refused to ply their routes. That meant 3,500 tricycles plying the city streets, according to Joel Perion, president of the Roxas City Tricycle Drivers’ Alliance.

Vans and jeepneys plying routes in Roxas City and outlying towns also ceased to operate.

But in Bacolod, trisikads and tricycles enjoyed a bonanza. Still, trike drivers claimed that was their only chance to earn additional income for their families. Ortega and some of the striking drivers asked several tricycle drivers, particularly those in Fortune Towers, to stay off the streets and to sympathize with them.

Ortega also appealed to private vehicle owners to cooperate with their strike, pointing out that the rising oil prices affect all of them, “not just the public transport workers.”

As of press time, there were no reported major incidents marring the two-day public transport protest.

The situation was different in Negros Oriental, which was unaffected by the public transport strike.

Buses kept plying their regular routes. So with jeepneys and tricycles.

ADDENDUM: The Filipino boxers who walked out from the SEAG boxing bouts included five Negrenses. They were Bago City pugs Junie Tizon, Junel Cantancio and Jorgia Landon, Godfrey Castro of Cadiz City, and Bacolod-born Orlando Tacuyan Jr… Another big news in Bacolod was the NBI raid on a grocery store (Kioks), which was reportedly selling smuggled packs of banned cancer-causing artificial sweeteners. NBI special investigator Cyrus Alusan said the grocery store was found selling “magic sugar” or sodium cyclamate. This is reportedly a concentrated acid-based sweetener used as substitute for sugar and considered by the DOH and the trade department as containing chemicals that are “highly cancerous.”