Sorsogon PUJ drivers go on strike
Bigger action vs oil prices planned
By Roy Gersalia, Ephraim Aguilar, Niña Catherine Calleja
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:20:00 07/22/2008
SORSOGON CITY – Drivers of public utility jeeps [PUJs] went on strike here Tuesday in protest of increasing oil prices and what they said was unfair competition from a bus firm, paralyzing transport in many areas.
Hundreds of students and workers were unable to go to schools and workplaces as a result of the strike, organized by a jeepney drivers’ group.
Members of the Gubat-Sorsogon Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association (Gusojoda) went on strike to call attention to their complaint against the RJ Bus Line, which they accused of violating an order to pick up passengers only at designated areas.
The bus practice, the drivers said, deprives PUJs of passengers.
Dr. Antonio Fuentes, president of the Sorsogon State College, said he had students fetched and sent home by school bus from and to Gubat town.
Commuters had complained that tricycles taking them to the bus terminal were charging exorbitant fare.
It wasn’t clear when the strike will end but a driver said the city government has not responded.
A bigger transport group, the Condor-Piston-Bikol, is planning to stage a two-day strike to call for the scrapping of the expanded value-added tax on oil and the oil deregulation law.
Joel Ascutia, chair of Condor-Piston-Bikol, said the group would meet Thursday to plan details of the strike.
He said that, for sure, the month would not end without the group staging a transport strike.
Condor-Piston has 10,350 members in all six provinces in the Bicol Region.
Meanwhile, in Calamba City, groups of jeepney drivers and operators have declared a transport strike on Thursday that will start at 9 a.m.
The Calamba groups are also demanding the scrapping of the oil deregulation law and the reformed value-added tax on oil products.
Rolando Mingo, secretary general of Starter (Southern Tagalog Transport Sector Organization for Reforms), said PUJ drivers have had it with the series of oil price increases and are now demanding long-term solutions.
He said drivers expect to paralyze transport routes in major towns and cities in provinces in Southern Tagalog such as Laguna, Cavite, Batangas, Quezon and Rizal, including Mindoro Oriental and Occidental.
“We won’t ask for another fare increase because it might not solve the real problem,” Mingo said.
The real problem, he said, are the 12 percent RVAT and the government’s deregulation of oil prices.
In the 1970s, when government was regulating oil prices, price increases went through public hearings, he added.
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