By ALEXANDRIA DENNISE SAN JUAN
While transport group PISTON announced a 90% success of their strike yesterday, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has belied the claim.
LTFRB member and spokesperson Aileen Lizada said that based on the 23 buses deployed in Metro Manila, 1,140 passengers or 0.011 percent only of the 10 million PUJ commuters in the National Capital Region were affected by the strike.
The regulatory board deployed yesterday government vehicles and private buses to ease the transportation problems of the riding public.
In a press conference yesterday, PISTON president George San Mateo said that based on their estimate, 90 percent of the nearly 300,000 public utility jeepneys nationwide joined the strike against the government’s public utility vehicle modernization program.
PISTON said that 92 percent out of the estimated 60,000 PUJs in Metro Manila were paralyzed during the strike yesterday.
Among the various protest centers in the National Capital Region, reported data shows that in Makati and Parañaque, 100 percent of PUJ drivers and operators joined the strike; while 97 percent in CAMANAVA; 95 percent along Sta. Mesa routes; 90 percent among routes plying Novaliches, Zapote, Anda Circle, Litex, Marikina, and Manila; and 80 percent in Cubao.
PISTON’s regional centers also recorded percentage of paralyzed transportation among the following routes: Nueva Vizcaya, Bulacan, Butuan City, and GMA, Cavite, 100 percent; Pampanga, 98 percent; Laguna, Davao, Rizal, and Albay, 95 percent, Camarines Sur, 90 percent; Masbate, 80 percent; Baguio, 75 percent; Surigao City, 60 percent, and Cebu City, 50 percent.
But the LTFRB remains unperturbed as government vehicles offered free rides to commuters while P12 fare for airconditioned buses and P10 for non-airconditioned.
These vehicles were on stand-by among six staging areas in Monumento, Luneta Grandstand, SM Marikina, Technohub in Quezon City, Camp Aguinaldo, and in MMDA Parking Lot.
Lizada said they will be deploying again 20 buses today on the same staging areas for the stranded commuters.
Meanwhile San Mateo said they will continue their transport strike today to prove they were able to paralyze public transport yesterday.