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BY ADRIAN STEWART CO and PRINCE GOLEZ
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Monday, December 4, 2017
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MANILA – Transport group Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytors Nationwide (Piston) postponed its planned nationwide transport strike for Dec. 4 and 5.
Sen. Grace Poe, chairwoman of the Senate public services committee, requested the postponement, Piston leader George San Mateo told a news conference yesterday.
Piston members will instead voice their frustration over the government’s public utility vehicle modernization program during the Senate panel’s hearing on Dec. 7, said San Mateo.
“Pansamantala nating ipinagpapaliban ang tigil-pasada,” he said. “Doon sa public hearing na kinakasa ni Senator Grace, doon tayo magsasalita para ma-flesh out ang issue.”
But San Mateo said the transport group will still stage a protest and hold a transport caravan from Quezon City to Mendiola today.
The government was set to phase out dilapidated public utility vehicles starting next year in light of President Rodrigo Duterte’s order for jeepney modernization, which will affect around 180,000 jeepneys.
The modernization program mandates the phaseout of jeepneys 15 years old and older and the replacement of non-Euro 4 compliant engines with new models prescribed by the government.
Poe welcomed Piston’s decision. “Issues can be better discussed and resolved when sobriety and judiciousness are exercised in pursuit of the highest public good,” she said yesterday.
The Dec. 7 hearing, which will discuss alternatives to the phaseout of old jeepneys, will be “urgent,” said Poe.
“Isasa-alang-alang natin ang kapakanan ng bawat isa – jeepney driver, operator, mananakay, at karaniwang mamamayan tungo sa paghanap ng solusyon,” she said. “We shall be guided by reason, responsibility and public welfare.”/PN
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