Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte slammed transport group PISTON and the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) over the planned week-long transport strike.
“We oppose it because it is problematic, it will hurt our learners, and the inconvenience that it may cause comes with an enormous price deleterious to learning recovery efforts — and this is a price that learners will have to pay. May I reiterate — the transport strike is a painful interference in our efforts to address the learning gaps and other woes in our education system,” Duterte said in a statement.
ACT has enjoined co-faculty to stand with jeepney drivers in their weeklong strike.
PISTON on Monday called on President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to suspend the implementation of the guidelines for the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).
“If you cannot understand our position, or refuse to understand our position, or even pretend not to understand our position, this is only because of your unbelievable propensity to push a hardline agenda that punishes the general public. This time, among the casualties, are our learners and teachers. Kawawa ang mga estudyante at mga guro,” the vice president said.
She also said that the first failure of this transport strike is the failure to consider the learners and the teachers.
“This does not come as a surprise anymore — a tactic is taken from a playbook familiar to many Filipinos. PISTON is an organization with leaders and some members poisoned by the ideologies of the bankrupt Communist Party of the Philippines, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, and the New People’s Army. And happily cavorting with PISTON and other militant organizations is ACT, a group that is diametrically nowhere near in the service of the interest of the learners and the education sector,” she said.
Duterte also reacted to ACT’s challenge that she should quit hiding behind red-tagging.
“This is not red-tagging. This is a statement of fact. Meanwhile, the progress and future of our learners cannot be left to the whims of organizations acting on bare selfish motives. Magkaroon man ng tigil pasada, walang tigil sa pag-aaral ang mga kabataan,” she said.
Meanwhile, the regional office of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB 11) announced that transport groups in Davao Region manifested that they will not participate in the one week scheduled nationwide transport strike.
In a Facebook post, LTFRB 11 stated that all transport cooperatives and corporations in Davao Region expressed their strong support for the implementation of the PUVMP.
“In a signed, unified statement, the transport entities pronounced their appreciation of PUVMP, soundly recognizing its goals and objectives to transform the nation’s public land transportation landscape for the better,” the statement said.
On the other hand, Anakbayan Southern Mindanao Region (SMR) held a protest in Davao City in solidarity with the national transport strike on Monday.
Anakbayan SMR organized a picket in Davao City alongside other progressive groups to protest the government’s efforts to push through the Omnibus Franchising Guidelines (OFG), also known as the DOTR Department Order 2017-011, and its other related LTFRB Memorandum Circulars, which hinder drivers and operators from combining their franchises with investors to privatize public utilities and services.
