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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Tuesday, February 28, 2017
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Commuters on Libertad Street, Bacolod City catch up with a garbage truck of the IPM Construction and Development Corp., which the city government deployed to offer free rides amid the transport strike on Monday, Feb. 27. ARCHIE REY ALIPALO/PN
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BACOLOD City – Negros Island Region transport organizations declared the strike they staged on Monday was a “success.”
The activity crippled “around 98 percent” of the public transportation grid in this capital city, according to Diego Malacad, secretary-general of the United Negros Drivers and Operators Center (Undoc).
Undoc and the Pinag-isang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (Piston) were protesting the planned phaseout of public utility vehicles (PUVs) 15 years and older; oil deregulation; and higher excise taxes on oil.
Malacad noted that not all PUVs joined the strike; several jeepneys, taxis and tricycles continued to ply their routes.
Jeepneys resumed trips past 4 p.m.
Malacad also said they received complaints that alleged Undoc and Piston members “harassed” PUVs that opted not to participate, including a tricycle that “about six persons” have turned upside-down.
Without admitting the culprits were their members, Malacad said they will investigate the complaints. “We do not tolerate violence. We focus on educating our drivers,” the transport group leader said.
Malacad claimed the “2 percent” that did not join the transport strike were “mostly colorums and tricycles.”
Figures were much lower if the local authorities were to assess.
Only “around 60 percent” of the public transport here participated, said Senior Superintendent Jack Wanky, city police chief.
Superintendent Luisito Acebuche, officer-in-charge of the Bacolod Traffic Authority Office, said the transport strike reduced regular vehicular traffic by “only 20 percent.”
Lacson Street was observed to have had vehicular congestion despite what the transport groups claimed a “98-percent” paralysis of transportation.
Ceres buses continued to ply their scheduled routes to and from Negros Occidental.
Their operator, Vallacar Transit, Inc., even noted an increase in the number of passengers.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia suspended classes in public kindergarten, elementary and high schools, as well as the Bacolod City College, yesterday.
The city government also provided transportation — two tourist buses and 12 garbage collector trucks — to ferry workers in government and private offices from seven barangays from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m./PN
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