BACOLOD City – Yesterday’s transport strike did not have any adverse effect on the movement of public utility vehicles and conveyance of commuters in this city.
Vice mayor El Cid Familiaran said the strike did not have any affect at all.
“The transport protest failed to paralyze all the transportation in the city as taxis, tricycles and e-trike were still plying in the city streets,” he added.
According to Familiaran, city hall employees were able to report to their respective offices because there were two city buses and four IPM dump trucks deployed in various parts of the metro to pick up and bring commuters to their destinations.
“Despite the transport strike, people still flocked the government center to catch up for the last day of voter registration,” he said.
Two major transport groups in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental – Sentrong Samahan ng Tsuper at Operators Negros Inc. (SSTONE) and Federation of Bacolod City Drivers Associations Inc. – have joined today’s nation-wide strike.
SSTONE claimed that jeepney routes in this city were affected by the strike, adding that 100 percent of the members under their group have joined to protest the “anti-poor” modernization program of the government.
Meanwhile, Executive Assistant Jomarie Vargas, cluster head of City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, also released his own assessments as regards the transport strike organized by the Transport group Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide.
Vargas said that only 80 percent of the public transportation in this city was paralyzed.
City police director Colonel Henry Biñas, on the other hand, said that the conduct of strike was generally peaceful.
Biñas said that policemen were deployed in the rally centers enforcing heighten security measures./PN
