Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Z. Duterte has reason to rant against drivers and operators spearheading the just-concluded transport strike.
Reiterating her stance that the ongoing tigil pasada is a painful interference in government efforts to address the education system, Sara lashed out at PISTON (Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide) and ACT (Alliance of Concerned Teachers) for their propensity to push a hardline agenda that punishes the general public.
“It is the poor teachers and students who suffer, and they are among the casualties of the communist-inspired strike,” she said in a statement. She also refuted allegations of red-tagging, saying it was a statement of fact. “The future of our learners cannot be left to the whims of organizations acting on bare selfish motives.”
PISTON last Monday launched a week-long transport strike to protest the modernization of public utility vehicles. ACT backed the PUV drivers who would be laid off due to what it called a “forced modernization” and slammed the Vice President for putting them at risk for red-tagging them. Yesterday, they cut short their tantrum after being assured by Malacañang of continued discussion on the issue.
To set the record straight, there’s nothing forced about the program being launched by the government.
Five years ago, when the government first broached the idea of modernization, the same group of recalcitrants staged a transport strike that highlighted the challenges to modernizing an already antiquated mode of public transportation.
Despite the resistance, however, the development of e-jeepneys and e-trikes went on in anticipation of the day when everything will fall into place. The intended replacement is a modernized, less polluting version with air conditioning.
In our book, anything that is an improvement over the old, sputtering jeepney is far better than being stuck in time. Never mind that we are replacing an icon that has been with us for ages.
What began as a makeshift solution to a temporary problem in post-war Manila now serves almost 40 percent of transport users in the metropolis and the surrounding provinces.
These vehicles, fashioned by local mechanics from war jeeps abandoned by the Americans, offered a new way to get around after the city’s street cable cars were destroyed by heavy artillery bombing during the war. It offered space for more passengers.
The so-called “King of the Road” has become so entrenched in the lives of millions of Filipinos it has similarly been ingrained in our national psyche. Replacing it with a newer, more improved version seems like grabbing candy from a child who simply would not allow it.
Operators and drivers have offered a myriad of reasons for not going along with the program, saying the cost of shifting to modernized jeepneys is just too high and beyond their reach. The truth is they just don’t want to part with their second-hand vehicles propped up with scavenged parts and reliant on polluting diesel. With this, they will have fewer cash outlays.
Remember the days when jeepney driver groups would blackmail the government with crippling transport strikes whenever their demands were not met? They have been at it for the longest time, they couldn’t care less if it’s the ordinary commuters who are paralyzed the most. What is ironic is that when the pandemic struck and sidelined them, they begged for alms from the very same people they had made suffer in the past.
The public has suffered long enough. They deserve a better transport system that would be attuned to the times. And the question begging to be answered is: What would it take to reform a decades-old mode of transport that has been overtaken by time?
We have been riding the jeepney for as long as we can remember and the sweeping changes brought about by modernization as envisioned by the Department of Transportation have come as welcome news, a relief long in coming.
The traditional jeepney has seen better days. It may be considered a symbol of Filipino ingenuity, but it only has given us more problems than solutions.
It has to go.