Transport group strike could paralyze nation - Roses And Thorns byAlejandro R. Roces

Today, almost everything depends on two things: transportation and communication. We have many transportation facilities, but we still have a problem because our roads are so crowded that traffic either moves at a snail's pace or worse at a total standstill. This coming Monday, we may have the very worst trans-portation problem in history. Leaders of the 95,000 strong Philippine Confederation of Drivers Associations and the Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations have slated a nation-wide strike to protest the proposed road users car tax and the pending oil price increase. If the planned strike pushes through, it will not only be transport vehicles, but the whole nation that will be at a total standstill.

Top officials of the Philippine National Police have met with the leaders of the public transport group to try to convince them to call off the planned strike. But this is not a police problem. The police have no say on the price of fuel. Neither does President Estrada for that matter. That is a question that will be determined by the world price of crude oil. The same is true about the proposed road users car tax. The police have no say on that issue. The police will get involved only if the Monday strike pushes through. Then the police have to be at the forefront to maintain law and order. If there is an increase in the price of gasoline, the passengers, not the transport operators, should absorb the increase. As for the road-users tax, the transport groups should be in communication with members of the Senate and the House. At this point, we don't see what the transport groups have to gain by declaring a strike on Monday.

Some people believe that the planned strike is aimed at further destabilizing the present administration. We see no point in a strike that can paralyze the nation. The cost of transportation is really the commuter's problem. Strikes should be resorted to only if negotiations fail. We don't see what the drivers and the public transportation operators have to gain by a mass strike.

We have never had a public transportation strike and we hope that we never get to see one. The people that will be most affected will be the great majority that depend on public vehicles to get to their work. Definitely, schools, offices, both government and private, will not be able to operate. One can only imagine how such a strike will affect our economy. What is as difficult to imagine is what the strikers themselves will gain. We believe they will be the first victims. The negotiating table is a better answer.