Cavite ‘bus strike’ latest attack vs MMDA scheme

The opposition to a Palace-backed scheme to regulate the number of provincial buses in Metro Manila took a new form on Tuesday, when several bus drivers and operators reportedly instigated a transport strike that left thousands of morning passengers stranded at a new terminal in Parañaque City.

Affected were commuters bound for Cavite province at Uniwide Coastal Mall, where some drivers and operators prevented buses from leaving terminals in Bacoor and Imus, Cavite, to protest the operation of the Southwest Integrated Provincial Terminal (SWIPT), according to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority. (The terminal was first called Southwest Integrated Transport Terminal, or SITT, when opened Aug. 6.)

Around 7 a.m., at least three bus drivers and conductors at the SWIPT staging area were seen urging other drivers to halt operations, the Inquirer learned. Several drivers also staged a noise barrage by honking their horns, but only a dispatcher was arrested for “alarm and scandal.”

But Parañaque chief of police Senior Supt. Ariel Andrade said the drivers instigating the protest had already left Coastal Mall when his men arrived. The MMDA, meanwhile, deployed two trucks to bring stranded passengers to Naic, Cavite, said Emerson Carlos, assistant general manager for operations.

Cavite-bound trips were back to normal by 11 a.m., Carlos said.

In a statement, MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said: “This is another sad incident on the penchant of certain groups for bickering, where every well-meaning effort is questioned, their private agendas unknown to me and the MMDA and fan(ning) flames where there should be none.”

He said “the striking bus operators” would be held liable in the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB).

In radio interviews, Tolentino said “some 20 percent” of the buses using SWIPT participated in the strike.

But a group of bus operators in Cavite denied calling for a strike, saying that while it was challenging the LTFRB’s decision to shorten their routes to the SWIPT, its members would never resort to “extra-legal means.”

Ferdinand Wakay, legal counsel for United Cavite Bus Operators Transport Inc., whose members operate a total of around 1,000 buses, said fewer buses from Cavite were seen on the road Tuesday morning because most of them were stuck in heavy traffic in Tanza and Dasmariñas, which were celebrating their town fiestas.

The group’s president, Mariano “Nes” Martinez, said they immediately ran a check on all their drivers plying the Cavite-Manila route. “We were also wondering who these people were but certainly none of them were our members,” Martinez said in a phone interview.

The group of around 14 bus operators, claiming to be the only bus association in Cavite, was in a meeting at the LTFRB office when the supposed strike took place.