Pampanga strikers vow not to disrupt graduation rites

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — The Pinagkaisang Samahan ng Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (PISTON) announced yesterday that the nationwide transport strike today is expected to be more paralyzing than their last protest action last Feb. 23 but jeepney drivers here and in nearby areas will return to their routes at 3 p.m. so as not to disrupt graduation rites slated in various schools in the region.

"We expect the strike to be more paralyzing than the strike we held last Feb. 23, but in consideration of the students who are to graduate on the day of our strike, drivers will return to work as early as 3 p.m." said Waldy Santos, PISTON coordinator for Pampanga. The strike, he said, will start at 5 a.m.

Santos said that various jeepney drivers’ groups with a total membership of about 120,000 have already committed to join the strike to press for their demands, including a P1.50 fare hike and the scrapping of the oil deregulation law.

The areas expected to be severely affected by the transport strike are Angeles City, Mabalacat, Mexico, Arayat, Guagua, Sta. Rita, Porac, Floridablanca, Porac, Magalang and Lubao. Jeepneys plying the routes between Pampanga and Malolos, Bulacan and Bamban, Capas and Concepcion in Tarlac will also join the strike, Santos said.

Meanwhile, the three-day transport strike which another group of jeepney drivers said would start yesterday in Central Luzon had fizzled out. The group allied with the Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokratiko (KPD) apparently failed to generate enough support from jeepney drivers in Pampanga, who are mostly members of PISTON.

But the KPD also said that its allied drivers’ groups will join today’s transport strike, claiming that the membership base of the groups in Central Luzon is estimated to reach 200,000.

While PISTON is demanding a P1.50 increase in fare, the groups allied with KPD are clamoring for a P2 increase.

Santos said, however, that PISTON would settle for a P1 increase if this would be coupled with a P1 rollback in the prices of fuel products, including liquified petroleum gas.