Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 7) — The country is losing “hundreds of millions” from the economy as the week-long transport strike pushed employers to keep staff working from home and schools to temporarily shift to online classes, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) said Monday.
“We’re being brought back to the pandemic era, alert level 2 where a lot of students cannot go to face-to-face (classes), employers need to be shuttled,” ECOP president Segio Ortiz-Luis Jr. told CNN Philippines’ The Final Word.
“During the pandemic, these losses, malaki (it’s big),” he added.
The ECOP chief said while several transport groups across the country did not join the protest, the main impact of the strike’s first day was mostly felt in Metro Manila.
A number of local government units and schools have placed contingencies in anticipation of the impact of the transport strike, including shifting to online classes and offering free rides beginning Monday. Malacañang also prepared vehicles for the free rides.
A number of transport groups began the strike on Monday to protest the public utility vehicle modernization program, including the phaseout of traditional jeepneys.
Transport group Manibela’s chairperson Mar Valbuena said they want a more reasonable rollout of the PUV modernization program, noting that paying franchise fees and buying new units are a heavy burden for drivers and operators.
PUV modernization program ‘not well thought of’
For Ortiz-Luis, the problems in the PUV modernization program were “inherited” from the Duterte administration.
“Everybody agrees that we have to modernize our vehicles but hindi well thought of ‘yun (it’s not well thought of). Dictated ‘yung arrangement that they are doing, that’s why there is resistance,” the ECOP chief said.
“I cannot blame them (PUV drivers and operators for the strike) because these are the livelihood of these people and you cannot impose on them an arrangement that cannot work for them,” he added.
In 2017, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board under the Duterte administration announcedthe PUV modernization program would begin after franchising guidelines were released.
READ: TIMELINE: The government’s PUV phaseout program
