THE National Police declared on Thursday that the transport “caravan” led by the Pinagkaisahang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operaytor Nationwide (Piston) failed to paralyze transportation in Metro Manila although it was orderly and peaceful, but paralyzed transportation in four key cities in the country.
Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz Jr., PNP spokesman, said the strike, which was joined by around 1,000 protesters, ended at around 4:30 p.m. without any report of violence, following the deployment of more than 5,000 policemen and soldiers.
The strike was highlighted by the protesters’ holding of a rally at Chino Roces Bridge along Mendiola Street in Manila, which ended at around 4:30 p.m.
Cruz said the caravan failed to paralyze transportation in Metro Manila following the deployment of more than 100 vehicles and trucks by different agencies of the government, including the PNP and the Armed Forces.
However, based on reports from the PNP’s regional offices, the caravan severely affected Angeles City in Pampanga and Cagayan de Oro City in Mindanao, when members of the transport group joined the protest action. BusinessMirror monitoring also reported a transporation paralysis in Davao City and General Santos City in Mindanao.
“As of 3 p.m., transportation in Angeles City in [Central Luzon] is paralyzed due to citywide transport strike,” Cruz said.
“In Cagayan de Oro, 94 percent of transportation is paralyzed, although the transport caravan is peaceful,” he added.
No effect on motorists in Metro
The PNP said the protesters, led by Piston president George San Mateo, converged around 10 a.m. along Elliptical Road in Quezon City.
Initially, it was composed of 27 Toyota FX vehicles, 34 jeepneys and three Asian utility vehicles.
Cruz said the group swelled while at the Mabuhay Rotunda, and before it moved toward Mendiola.
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) said only a small percentage of the expected number of jeepneys participated in the so-called transport caravan.
Of the expected 200 jeepneys, MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said only 39 passenger jeepneys, 29 Asian utility vehicles and four private vehicles joined the caravan, which was meant to dramatize the protest against continuous oil price hikes and the inability of the government to rein in the oil companies.
“Their purpose might have been just to ventilate their grievances. But it seems they have failed to muster enough support. The other large transport groups did not participate,” Tolentino said.
The transport caravan made its way through Quezon Avenue from the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City, stopping at the Mabuhay Rotunda at the border of Manila and Quezon City, and to the Chino Roces Bridge (formerly Mendiola bridge) near Malacañang.
The MMDA said the caravan did not paralyze traffic along Quezon Avenue. “There was no effect on traffic. It [traffic] was moving. There was no effect on motorists,” said Tolentino.
MMDA traffic enforcers escorted the caravan as it made its way through Quezon Avenue to ensure it would not hamper the flow of traffic.
Tolentino added that the agency prepared more than 100 vehicles to ferry passengers who might be stranded as a result of the mass action.
However, only two buses were dispatched to cover the Sucat-Baclaran route. From the MMDA office in Makati, Tolentino monitored the movement of the transport caravan through a live video feed sent from a closed-circuit television camera posted near the Mendiola Bridge.
For his part, LTFRB board member Manuel Iway said they did not track any major disruption in public transport in Metro Manila.
However, he said the operation of passenger jeepneys in some parts of the country, such as Angeles City and Cagayan De Oro, were affected as unidentified persons scattered metal spikes on some roads to discourage jeepneys from plying their routes so they would join the mass action.
“No routes were affected by the transport caravan here in Metro Manila,” Iway said.
Iway said they directed the agency’s regional directors to investigate the incident and submit their report to the national office.
National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) director, Chief Supt. Nicanor Bartolome, said they have not monitored any incident related to the caravan as he congratulated the protesters for policing their rank.
The NCRPO deployed some 5, 000 policemen all over Metro Manila as early as 4 a.m. on Thursday to secure the area where the caravan would pass as well as the participants.
Drivers’ strike hits major Mindanao cities
Meanwhile, strikes mounted by drivers of public transport in Mindanao cleared the major interprovincial transportation routes and urban thoroughfares of jeepneys and tricycles although the closing of the school year lessened the number of stranded commuters.
The Traffic Management Center in Davao City estimated the transport paralysis at 85 percent in the morning, but random interviews by radio stations among drivers indicated that more would go home before noon due to lack of passengers along their designated routes.
Paralysis in General Santos City was also reported as tricycles kept off the streets.
Tricycle drivers in Tagum City, the capital of Davao del Norte, did not heed the call for a national transport strike although drivers’ associations in several towns in the province told television interviews that they would support the strike.
In Iligan City in Lanao del Norte, commuters said traffic enforcers helped the strikers by calling on other drivers to stop plying their routes.
A councilor has reportedly appealed for support to the strike.
At least two interprovincial bus companies plying the Cotabato, General Santos and Koronadal routes told the BusinessMirror that they continued their normal operations, sending air-conditioned and premier deluxe buses on their scheduled one-hour interval departure.
“Our air-con buses, and even the deluxe units, were full of passengers going out and coming to Davao City,” said the male staff at the office of the Yellow Bus Lines. This company ply the 200-kilometer Davao City-General Santos City-Koronadal City route.
Strikers in Davao City were criticized, however, for failing to police their ranks, after metal spikes were strewn on downtown streets. A service vehicle of the GMA TV station sustained punctured tires to these metal spikes.
One vulcanizing shop along Roxas Avenue reported that it serviced more than 20 vehicles, many of them taxi cabs, with punctured tires. The shop collected as much as P100 per service.
Mayor Sara Duterte earlier warned striking drivers on Wednesday to avoid using metal spikes and to force nonparticipating drivers to join them. She also directed City Hall employees to work on their eight-hour daily job.
The city government fielded buses to transport commuters and workers to their homes. Police personnel were deployed to escort these buses. --With C. Mocon
