Malabon jeepney drivers stage strike

The re-routing of public transport, caused by the construction of the P10-million Historical Walk in the middle of EDSA toward the Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan City, prompted hundreds of jeepney drivers in Malabon to stage a lightning strike yesterday.

The strike resulted in the stranding of thousands of commuters going in and out of Malabon, Navotas and parts of Caloocan.

Some drivers who tried to make the trip were intercepted by angry strikers on Letre Road and demanding they join their protest action.

Meanwhile, drivers of tricycles, registered and colorum alike, were more than willing to fill up the vacuum left by the protesting jeepney drivers. Taking the rare opportunity and preying on the vulnerability of the hapless commuters, trike drivers charged P10 per passenger for the less than two-kilometer distance from Sangandaan in Caloocan City to Malabon City proper.

A spokesman for the strikers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed they have been victims of indiscriminate "mulcting" by traffic enforcers even as they have followed the rerouting directions. The protesters are jeepney drivers plying the Bayan (Malabon)-Monumento route, the shortest way to Monumento from downtown Malabon traveling along Letre Road and on to Samson Road from Sangandaan to Monumento and around the 73-year-old historical landmark.

With the EDSA side blocked off from traffic, they are now forced to take the extra hundred meters going to the Manila Central University (MCU) Hospital and Morning Breeze Subdivision along EDSA and make a U-turn at the middle island by the Serrano Avenue intersection and back to Monumento and again to Samson Road on the return trip.

SPO3 Generoso Pineda, Caloocan City traffic officer on duty, said the drivers staged the strike as early as 6 a.m.

The drivers said they have made representations with Mayor Reynaldo Malonzo regarding the matter but lamented that no solution was in sight. They said no action has been made by Malonzo regarding the problem.