'Drivers can strike': Acquittal of Piston leader a 'great victory' for transport strikers
MANILA, Philippines — The recent court acquittal of transport leader George San Mateo validates the right of transportation workers to hold strikes and voice their grievances, he said Wednesday.
"On a certain degree, this important decision by the court means the reaffirmation of our constitutional rights to hold peaceful collection mass actions," San Mateo told Philstar.com in mixed Filipino and English in an online exchange. "The dismissal of the court can be considered a victory for the right of PUV drivers, small operators, and citizens to carry out peaceful collective and militant protest actions to express our legitimate grievances and request."
Earlier this week, San Mateo, president emeritus of Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operators Nationwide or Piston, disclosed that the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 43 had acquitted the transport advocate of a case filed by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board over nationwide transport strike by the group in 2017.
READ: QC court orders PISTON leader's arrest over transport strike
For the transport leader, the acquittal only validates the "PUV drivers' right to hold peaceful transport strike to air the drivers and small operators legitimate grievances and demands."
"[This is] especially if the government, in crafting policies, will not even listen or properly consult with affected people," he also said.
At the time of San Mateo's arrest, Sen. Grace Poe questioned the charges against him and was quoted as saying in an interview aired over ANC that "every person or every group also has the right to assemble peacefully."
Philstar.com also reached out to the senator for comment, but she has not responded as of this post.
'A move to intimidate transport groups'
San Mateo was charged in 2017 with violating Section 20(k) of the Commonwealth Act 146 or the Public Service Law in the wake of a nationwide transport strike spearheaded by his group.
That provision of CA 146 reads: "(k) Adopt, maintain, or apply practices or measures, rules or regulations to which the public shall be subject in its relations with the public service." The section deals with acts requiring the approval of a Public Service Commission.
According to court documents posted by San Mateo, QC-MTC Branch 43 Judge Don Ace Mariano Alagar contended that the prosecution was unable to prove the guilt of San Mateo beyond reasonable doubt.
“There was likewise no further investigation conducted that Piston members and/or other public transport utility group, organization, or its members were indeed advised, solicited, persuaded, influenced, or dictated by the accused to conduct a transport strike," the decision read.
“Accused cannot be convicted on (the) basis alone of being the president of Piston. His acts and omissions must be proven with certainty in order to hold him criminally liable,” it added.
Bayan Secretary-General Renato Reyes Jr. said at the time that the arrest warrant against San Mateo is “obviously harassment and a move to intimidate transport groups.”
San Mateo also reiterated his calls for the government to allow 100% of traditional public utility jeepneys back on the road amid the coronavirus pandemic.
READ: Nearly a month into GCQ, gov't uncertain on jeepney's fate
Transport modernization
When he was arrested in 2017, San Mateo and his group were protesting the administration's PUV modernization program, which saw drivers and operators feeding their poor families refuse to shoulder a large chunk of the P2.4 million price tag of one modernized jeepney. They are also handed subsidies for these, though transport economists say the amount is not enough.
Eight months into the coronavirus pandemic, though, the transport modernization plan has only pushed forward where drivers, getting fuel subsidies from the government, are asked to pay bank loans slapped with interest. This, while many drivers and operators of traditional jeepneys still jobless and prohibited from hitting the roads.
The transportation department has often asserted that all public utility vehicles must pass roadworthiness standards set by the Land Transportation Office before being allowed to ply their routes, which the DOTr has, over the pandemic, often brought up when asked about the lack of jeepneys on the road.
However, the LTO for its part has not been keen on answering questions about its standards and how many jeepney operators and units have applied for road selection—all this, as the department continues to pursue its jeepney phaseout under its PUV modernization program.
READ: Jeepney drivers have not received aid months into quarantine — Piston
Piston president Mody Floranda has said that the group estimates around 200,000 traditional jeepney units and 150,000 drivers in the National Capital Region alone. As of the Department of Transportation's latest update to reporters, a total of 1,354 drivers have applied for its service contracting scheme—which is projected to benefit about 60,000 drivers—while some 33,979 drivers have been cleared to ply 387.
While the economy has been reopened since June, allowing 58.2% of workers in the National Capital Region to report to work, estimates from no less than the National Economic and Development Authority showed that only 35.5% are able to do so because of public transport shortage.
Not spared from red-tagging spree
With all of this, though, San Mateo added that he and his group were not spared by the spate of red-tagging amid the Duterte administration's widely-criticized handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
At one of its more recent protests, he said, Piston found and took down posters plastered on the walls bordering the LTO and LTFRB facilities that were tagging San Mateo and other members of the group as communist rebels.
President Rodrigo Duterte has also long accused the transport group of being a communist front, a narrative that he has since ramped up in the years following San Mateo's arrest. “It is one big conspiracy. Right now, all of them are committing rebellion,” the chief executive said then.
"We strongly condemn the red-tagging being thrown at myself and Piston which we suspect is the handiwork of NTF-ELCAC and their military intelligence operatives. They're the only ones with the gall and resources to do that, especially with putting up posters at the LTO at LTFRB," San Mateo said, referring to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, a composite group under the Office of the President which has been caught in the past publishing fake quote-card graphics on its social media channels, and spreading false allegations against broadcast giant ABS-CBN Corp.
"The LTO at LTFRB did not even take these posters down. This is why we also suspect that the leadership of the two agencies are accomplices."
READ: More raps filed vs NTF-ELCAC execs over red-tagging, fake news
The practice of red-tagging, in the dissent of Justice Marivic Leonen in the case of Zarate v. Aquino, has been defined as "labeling, branding, naming and accusing individuals and/or organizations of being left-leaning, subversives, communists or terrorists (used as) a strategy...by State agents, particularly law enforcement agencies and the military, against those perceived to be ‘threats’ or ‘enemies of the State’.”
According to San Mateo, though, the practice of the NTF-ELCAC violates one's presumption of innocence by declaring one guilty by association.
He called on Congress to defund the national task force and instead redirect its P16 billion budget to the management of the pandemic, relief for typhoon-stricken communities, and support for transportation issues.
"Red-tagging and terrorist-tagging is putting my life and my family in danger as well as members of Piston and their families. This creates a condition where we are demonized in public, or worse, where we can be slapped with trumped-up charges," San Mateo said.
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