Poe asks transport groups to reconsider and call off planned strike

Sen. Grace Poe. (Photo from her office)

Senator Grace Poe appealed to transport groups on Saturday to “reconsider and call off” their planned nationwide strike next week as she called for an “urgent” hearing on the government’s jeepney modernization program.

“I am appealing to transport groups Piston and the Stop Jeepney Phaseout Coalition to reconsider and call off their planned strike and instead sit down with us in the committee so that the Senate can hear their concerns regarding the proposed jeepney modernization program of the government,” Poe said in a statement,

The senator chairs the Senate committee on public services, which she plans to convene on Thursday (December 7) to address the issues against the government’s jeepney modernization program.

“I understand that certain issues in the modernization program still need to be carefully studied and threshed out with the concerned government agencies. We hope this can be done during the committee hearing. We also want to hear the alternative proposals from different stakeholders,” she said.

Poe said she would call for an “urgent” hearing of the committee in light of the transport strike scheduled on Monday and Tuesday next week and also “in consideration of the interests of various stakeholders—the transport sector and especially the commuters.”

“On Monday, I will file a resolution in order to conduct a hearing that will address these issues of PUV drivers and operators alike,” she said.

“Their problems are not theirs alone, but that of the entire nation that depends on the kind of public transportation they offer. Let us sit down and talk, and find ways to move forward with solutions that are socially just and feasible,” the senator added.

Last Tuesday, militant group Piston announced it would hold a nationwide protest next week against the planned phaseout of jeepneys, which would not pass the vehicle inspection test, starting January 1, 2018.

“The jeepney phaseout is just one way for [President] Duterte to appeal himself to foreign and local capitalists. It has no other objective than for a few corporations to monopolize [the jeepney industry],” San Mateo said in Filipino.

READ: Piston to stage another 2-day transport strike next week