Dialog averts transport strike

A planned nationwide transport strike set this month has been averted following a dialog between leaders of various transport groups and President Benigno Aquino III who promised to immediately address their concerns, including the rising prices of petroleum products.

The President met with 30 transport group leaders in Malacañang on Wednesday and discussed with them how the government could improve their plight.

Palace officials described the three-hour-long dialog as “constructive.”

“The sense we got was that the transport strike will not happen,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte told a news conference Wednesday night.

Valte said that only one of the 18 transport leaders who raised their concerns with President Aquino mentioned the transport strike but only to state that his group was “not in favor of it.”

Strike threat

She said that Rogelio Chavez, president of the Jeepney Transport Council assured President Aquino during the dialog that his group would not support the transport strike that militant group Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston) has threatened to stage in protest of the high oil prices.

Although Piston joined the dialog, the group did not mention its threat to go on strike there, according to Energy Undersecretary Jose Layug.

Layug said Piston president George San Mateo sought the scrapping of the Oil Deregulation Law and even submitted a paper “on how to improve” the law.

‘Kotong’ cops

“From what we gathered, other transport leaders felt that because of the time given by the President today that is sufficient for them as a platform to discuss again with government rather than go to the streets,” Layug added.

Valte said the transport leaders thanked President Aquino “for the time he gave them.”

The transport leaders were also able to ventilate their concerns as well as see the Chief Executive give his immediate response to their concerns that at some points in the dialog they even applauded him, she said.

Among the major concerns raised by the transport leaders included the problem of “kotong” or extortion by policemen and traffic enforcers as well as the Oil Deregulation Law.

“The President’s response to the problem of kotong was that his administration will not tolerate it and he instructed (Interior and Local Government) Secretary Jesse Robredo to coordinate with officials and investigate as well as remove from the service those found to be guilty of extortion,” Valte said.

On the Oil Deregulation Law which transport groups want to improve, Valte said President Aquino had ordered the concerned agencies to review the law.

“There is more room for competition,” Valte said was Mr. Aquino’s position on the matter.

To help transport groups cope with the new round of oil price increases, Layug said President Aquino had instructed officials to implement the fuel subsidy for jeepney operators from the remaining balance of the P300 million earlier allocated for the program.