Vice President and Department of Education Secretary Sara Duterte joined the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority in its monitoring of the three-day transport strike staged by transport group PISTON.
Duterte oversaw the agency’s monitoring of the strike at the MMDA Communications and Command Center which serves as the inter-agency monitoring and command center for the tigil-pasada.
The Office of the Vice President deployed their buses to augment and serve as rescue vehicles for affected commuters.
“We are also appealing to the group staging the protest to have a dialogue with the government and bring their concerns to the negotiation table.”
“We are ready to support the MMDA in their transport strike response. We are also appealing to the group staging the protest to have a dialogue with the government and bring their concerns to the negotiation table,” she said.
For his part, MMDA Acting Chairman Atty. Don Artes said that the MMDA readied 686 service vehicles. The agency dispatched 74 vehicles which served 1815 commuters.
Artes also categorically said that PISTON failed to paralyze the transportation on their first day of strike.
“We think that it might be just normal Monday morning rush hour foot traffic,” he said, noting that the agency doesn’t want to have a build-up of stranded passengers hence the immediate deployment of prepositioned assets.
While he downplayed the impact of the first day of the transport strike, Artes said that the MMDA and other concerned agencies will continue to monitor the situation until the last day of the strike.
“We are ready for the three-day strike and we will respond depending on the situation,” he stressed.
Artes also said the agency will assess the volume of traffic prior to the decision on whether the number coding scheme will be suspended again.
Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board Chairman Teofilo Guadiz, meanwhile, said that there is a scheduled dialogue between them and PISTON to hear their issues with regards to the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program.
Guadiz also said that the LTFRB is lenient on suspension of franchises of those who will participate in the tigil-pasada, stressing that they recognized the right of the protesters to air their opinions.
“We will let them use their freedom of expression, however, they will be penalized if they resort to violent means such as throwing of stones and spikes to force others to join their protests.”
“We will let them use their freedom of expression, however, they will be penalized if they resort to violent means such as throwing of stones and spikes to force others to join their protests,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Artes said that there is a sharp decline in the number of apprehensions on the EDSA busway regulation.
“From the 524 apprehensions last November 13, there were only 62 apprehended as of 10am, November 20,” he noted.
