WELL, it does seem like another exercise in futility. From the look of things, it was doomed before it even started.
At best, it probably pissed off some people but it failed to achieve the purpose it was intended for – to inconvenience the natives and paralyze business in “I Am Iloilo City”.
Of course, we are talking about Monday’s failed transport strike. For all the brouhaha the organizers created to drum up interest, on “strike day” the supposedly “huge” and “crippling” rally fizzled like a wet firecracker and didn’t even generate a spark.
It was “coitus interruptus” so to speak. The “transport strike” failed to achieve “orgasm “despite all the foreplay that weekend. It seems somebody doused them with cold water and rained on their parade. The so-called strike was deflated with a pre-emptive strike.
The jeepneys with tarpaulins on them saying there would be a transport strike on Monday with matching loudspeakers blaring the usual boring propaganda parked alongside Jaro Plaza and beside La Paz Market was an obvious sign of desperation to get the natives’ attention.
Unfortunately for them, nobody listened. If there was any reaction at all, it was most probably irritation at best.
The only ones listening were their people manning those jeepneys. They had no choice, they were forced to listen. If they had any choice they’d probably be listening to the music of 96.3 Easy Rock.
So what doused cold water on the supposedly massive nationwide transport strike?
Firstly, the organizers of the transport strike were all either leftists or pseudo-communists espousing a failed, obsolete and irrelevant ideology. Nobody’s buying that nonsense anymore. Well, except perhaps for some naïve trendy students looking for some meaning in their boring existence and some remnants of the so-called 1st Quarter Storm still dreaming and romanticizing their youth when even a massive dosage of Viagra and lubricants failed to revive an already dead and dried up appendage.
Secondly, there was a decisive pre-emptive strike from the government that proved effective.
Excerpts from the Sept. 27, 2019 issue of Panay News:
Jeepney strike: No Sept. 30 classes in Iloilo City
Public and private school classes in all levels here are suspended on Sept. 30 due to the nationwide transport strike.
In ordering the suspension, Mayor Jerry Treñas said he wanted to minimize the inconvenience that the public, especially students, parents and guardians, school faculty and staff, would suffer.
The transport strike is a protest against the government’s plan to phase out old jeepneys by July 2020.
Fearing that the strike could paralyze the city, Treñas said he would have an inter-agency meeting with various government bodies today. Preparations will be discussed.
But while he ordered the suspension of Monday’s classes, Treñas made it clear in Executive Order No. 89 issued yesterday that it would be business as usual at city hall.
In previous transport strikes, the city government mobilized its various vehicles to transport city government workers.
It also tapped the help of the Philippine Army, Iloilo City Police Office, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, and Department of Public Works and Highways which all have transport assets such as trucks to ferry stranded people.
And from the Sept. 28, 2019 issue also of Panay News:
Do not strike, drivers told: Iloilo city, prov’l gov’ts to offer free rides
The Western Visayas Transport Cooperative (WVTC) is not joining Monday’s nationwide transport strike against the phase out of old jeepneys. It has received a warning from the Office of Transportation Cooperatives (OTC) that its registration could be revoked.
Under WVTC are some 2,000 jeepney units affiliated with the Iloilo City Loop Alliance of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association (ICLAJODA) and transport groups from the municipalities of Dumangas and Barotac Nuevo in Iloilo province, and from the provinces of Antique and Guimaras.
The Iloilo City Association of Operators and Drivers Cooperative (ICAODC), too, are not joining Monday’s transport holiday, it announced yesterday.
One of the bigger groups under ICAODC is the City Loop Integrated Alliance of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association (CLIAJODA). Its president Rizalito Alido said they are supportive of the government’s transport modernization program.
Meanwhile, the Association of Taxi Operators in Panay (ATOP) clarified members will not stop operating on Monday.
And you’re still wondering why the transport strike failed? If you are, then you probably believe that Noynoy Aquino is the best President this country ever had, Kris is still a virgin and Cory is a saint.
The purpose of the transport strike was to oppose the government’s mandate to phase-out the obsolete, not environment-friendly, hot and completely uncomfortable jeepney as the main mode of urban public transport with a modern environment-friendly, air-conditioned, comfortable commuter friendly e-jeeps.
What kind of an idiot will oppose improving, or as “I Am Iloilo City” mayor Geronimo would say, “level up” mass transportation in favor of the long suffering commuters? (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
