Strike had no effect on Negros Oriental transport

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines —  Public transportation in Negros Oriental went virtually unhampered despite the national transport strike yesterday.

Most, if not all, of the more than 500 to 600 different units of multicabs, public utility jeepneys, and buses opted to continue plying the various routes to and from this city.

NP Motor Piston Provincial Chairman Cirilo Collado and Dumaguete ND Motor Piston Chairman Eddie Lazaro said they actually scheduled a transport caravan starting September 20 last month so President Duterte would be aware that the transport sector is vehemently against the proposal of Department of Transportation Sec. Arthur Tugade to phase out old jeepneys in Manila and other parts of the country.

However, they have called off the scheduled caravan upon the request of Governor Roel Degamo because of the Buglasan activities and out of respect to Negrenses celebrating their fiesta.

According to Collado and Lazaro, Dumaguete City Mayor Felipe Remollo of Dumaguete and Degamo understand their predicament against the proposals for the phase out of jeepneys and against the proposal of Senator Manny Pangilinan in Senate Bill 1540 to replace the tricycles with e-trikes.

Lazaro said they have intimated to Remollo their objection to the phaseout of the more than 2,500 tricycles in Dumaguete with the entry of e-trikes, but if the city would allow the deployment of e-trikes, they can coexist.

Because of this, the scheduled transport strike today was not felt by the riding public, he added.

A 200-man delegation composed of transport leaders and officers of ND Motor Piston all over Negros Oriental is expected to be in Cebu today for a four-day activity that will culminate on Saturday.

The group will go straight to Plaza Independencia for the so-called “Salubong sa Independencia” where different transport groups from Central Visayas will converge to express their sentiments against policies they believe are contrary to what the president was espousing during his campaign.

The ND Motor Piston leaders in Dumaguete and the province said they are going to Cebu to sympathize with their counterparts from Regions 6, 7, and 8 and to express their sentiments against certain proposals, at their own expense.

In Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, it was a business as usual for three transport groups as they did not join yesterday’s strike.

Diego Malacad, secretary general of the United Negros Drivers and Operators Center, however, said yesterday that they are eyeing for three days to a week drivers holiday after the MassKara Festival, which is now being celebrated in Bacolod City.

“We are not on strike out of respect of the ongoing MassKara Festival,” he said.

But Malacad clarified that they are sharing a common stand with other transport groups in the country against the planned phaseout of old public utility vehicles 15 years and above.

“The PUJ phaseout is anti-poor and anti-public transport groups. It only favors giant transport businesses,” he stressed.

Two other transport groups, the Federation of Bacolod Drivers Association and Sentrong Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operators, did not also join the transport strike. (FREEMAN)