Transport Strike Cripples Davao

Only 300 of the 7,000 jeepneys in this city plied their routes in Davao City during the nationwide strike of PUJ drivers and operators. The strike also forced some banks to close; at least two malls scaled down their operations, while practically all private and public schools suspended classes.

By Cheryll Fiel
Bulatlat

DAVAO CITY – The transport strike in this city last Nov. 25 was a success, according to its organizers, who said the strike drove home the message that the Filipino people will not put up with the runaway increases in fuel prices and the country’s deteriorating economy.

Only 300 of the 7,000 jeepneys in this city plied their routes that day, according to Sammy Lasay, chair of the Transport of Southern Mindanao for Solidarity, Independence and Nationalism (Transmission), a group affiliated with the national transport group Piston. Lasay said they actually counted the number of jeepneys that were on the road that day.

Lasay and other organizers also said that the strike forced some banks to close, at least two malls scaled down their operations, while practically all private and public schools suspended classes. An ABS-CBN report said even workers at the City Hall were sent home earlier because transactions there had been minimal anyway. Even some tricycle drivers joined the strike.

The city government, which had declared a “no work, no pay” policy for that day, was forced to field 50 buses and 10 dumptrucks to help stranded passengers.

Lasay said that, from the north to the southbound lanes of the city, the 25 associations of PUJs (public utility jeepneys) operators and drivers were successful in sending the message of indignation against the continuing oil price increases and their long-ignored call to rollback the prices of gasoline.

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte showed up during a march rally in the afternoon to offer his congratulations to the strikers and to assure them that he was with them. “I am with you. I may not join you in the strike but I will assure you that I will protect those who have grievances against the policies of the government,” Duterte said. He stayed a few minutes to chat with the protesters.

Worth the fight

The success of the strike meant a lot of things to the protesting drivers. “This indicates that the drivers and operators feel the economic pinch,” Lasay said. He said it confirmed that a transport strike is still an effective form of expressing their protest against government policies. “Oil price increases affect not just our sector but the general public too,” Lasay said.

Frank Kempis, Transmission’s deputy secretary general, explained that PUJ drivers would not mind losing their small income for that day to push for their agenda to rollback the price of oil.

“If they don’t go on strike, they will keep earning such a small amount,” Kempis said. He pointed out as an example the increase in wages and salaries: if workers did not go on strike to demand higher wages, they would continue to be exploited by their employers.

A driver of a passenger jeepney here earns an average of only P150 a day, for a 14- to 17-hour work. This means he would have to ply his route from as early as six in the morning until late in the evening. Kempis said P150 is not enough to sustain a family of three.

“The price of a liter of gasoline is even expensive than a kilo of rice. If we don’t send the message now that enough is enough, maybe three months is a long time for these oil companies to jack up the gasoline prices again, to P50 a liter,” Kempis said.

The admission that came that day from city officials -- that the strike managed to affect 80 percent of the city’s transport system -- meant a lot, Kempis said.  “The capitalist realized that we have hurt them a little through a mass action, so we can make them feel that we are an important sector of society that deserves attention,” he said.

Lasay said the drivers and operations had no other intention but to pressure the government into solving the problems of the people; to repeal the oil-deregulation law that, they said, allowed oil companies to increase prices indiscriminately; lower the prices of basic commodities; and to stop the continuing oil price hikes. Bulatlat

All photos by Christian Lloyd Espinoza

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