Makati jeepney drivers back on road on 2nd day of strike

Jeepney drivers in Makati were back on the streets on Tuesday, not holding placards and protesting the planned phaseout of their vehicles, but behind the wheel to earn their daily keep.

Members of the Makati Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association (MJODA) who joined the strike on Monday said that their officials told them to ply their routes on Tuesday.

“We wanted to go on strike [yesterday], because we wanted unity among us. But we needed to go to the streets because we need to complete our boundary,” a driver said while waiting for passengers in a terminal at Edsa-Magallanes.

The drivers said that since Bong Duka, president of Unified Transport Federation of Makati (UTFM), had ordered jeepney drivers to resume operations, they needed to hit the road so they could pay the P1,000 daily boundary.

On Monday, hundreds of jeepneys belonging to UTFM participated in the strike initiated by Piston, which claimed it paralyzed 90 percent of transportation in the metropolis.

‘Zero’ routes

All 14 jeepney routes in Makati and those in nearby cities of Pasay, Taguig, Pateros and Manila were affected, according to the Southern Police District (SPD).

Local governments affected by the strike deployed buses, coasters and police vehicles to ferry stranded commuters. On Tuesday, however, the SPD noted “zero” routes affected by the strike.

It noted only “pocket protests” were held on Tuesday in four cities—at Sucat and Alabang terminals in Muntinlupa, on Sucat Road, San Dionisio, in Parañaque, in front of SM Southmall in Las Piñas, and on Champaca Street, Western Bicutan, in Taguig.

A driver in Pasay, meanwhile, expressed frustration at the “strikes which did not translate to results.”

“We’ve been joining strikes for four times already, with the same call—to protest the jeepney modernization program
—but it seems that the Department of Transportation will not budge,” said Petronilo Tumilan, a board member of Airmen’s Jeepney and Drivers Association.

“Last time we joined the strike was during the President’s State of the Nation Address. They told us it will be our final strike … But the strikes never end. We won’t be able to live like that,” Tumilan said.

The Philippine National Police said the two-day transport strike was “generally peaceful.”