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Northern Mindanao transport groups set region-wide strike

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Feb. 25 (PNA) -- A region-wide transport strike in Northern Mindanao is set on Feb. 27 to dramatize the protest against the impending phase out of all 15-year-old public utility jeepneys (PUJs) next year, a transport official said Saturday.

Joel Gabatan, Vice Chair of the National Confederation of Transport Workers Union (NCTU) for Mindanao, said that the planned transport strike would pushed through after negotiations with the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) in Manila failed.

He said that about 16 transport groups in Northern Mindanao decided to join the planned nationwide transport strike on Monday after the DOTC failed to reconsider the five-year moratorium asked by the transport group prior to the implementation of the phase out order.

An education official here also reminded parents to discern on the safety of their students during the transport strike, but reminded that all employees and teachers should report to their offices and classrooms.

Reynaldo Manuel, the Assistant School Division Superintendent, said that “if the parents believed that the safety of their student could be compromised because of the transport strike, then they should let their students stay at home.”

“The Department of Education (DepED) would devise a plan to make up the absences of the students during the transport strike,” Manuel said.

The DOTC and the transport groups conducted a week-long meeting last week to settle the transport group’s proposal to extend another five years in a bid to withhold the planned phase out of the PUJs in 2018.

Gabatan said that the extension of the phasing out for another five years could prepare the operators and drivers to find an alternative source of income.

He said that the transport groups had also asked for a possible government subsidy within the five year period.

The DOTC has reportedly issued a Memorandum to phase out the 15-year-old PUJs next year, while the operators with remaining PUJs would be required to put up a capital outlay of PHP 7 million, Gabatan said.

He said that the PHP 2 - million would be used for the maintenance of the PUJs while the remaining PHP 5 million would be used to acquire, at least, 10 additional new units.

“The DOTC memorandum is unrealistic,” Gabatan said.

According to Gabatan, 16 transport groups in Northern Mindanao would join the transport strike.

He said that about 500 wives of the members of the NCTU joined the transport strike to express support of their husbands.

“The wives would convince other drivers to sympathize with the transport strike. After all, the mass action was intended to benefit both the drivers and PUJ operators in the future,” Gabatan said.

He said that the passenger buses and taxicabs were not part of the region wide strike, but we hope that they would join us. (PNA)

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