The city government of Muntinlupa suspended face-to-face classes in public schools (Daycare to Grade 12) on Thursday, Dec. 14 due to a transport strike that begins today.
Other local government units in Metro Manila and across the country were expected to follow suit.
Major colleges in the National Capital Region — including the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) — also announced shifts to online classes to head off the weekend strike.
The Pagkakaisa ng Samahan ng Mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON) announced a transport strike for Dec. 14 and 15 to protest the government’s Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).
The Polytechnic University of the Philippines, National University, University of Santo Tomas, and De La Salle University also announced shifts to online classes in their official social media accounts.
However, UPD said faculty members can consult their students if they choose to conduct scheduled activities face-to-face with “appropriate consideration” to students.
Meanwhile, the UPD heads and personnel affected by the transport strike may also work from their homes, while a minimum number of on-site personnel are allowed to conduct expected in-person transactions.
Moreover, the UP Health Service, UPD Police, Public Safety and Security Office, Special Services Brigade, and Campus Maintenance Office were required to report for on-site work.
On the eve of the PISTON transport strike, the Department of Transportation said all systems are go for the PUVMP, with Secretary Jaime Bautista saying that jeepney operators who have not consolidated by Dec. 31 will lose their franchise.
He also said the government is ready for the transport strike.
PISTON, on the other hand, said it will push through with the two-day strike.
“The government has no clear basis to insist on the deadline. They will only worsen the suffering of the people,” the group said on its Facebook page in Filipino.
PISTON earlier said a majority of public utility jeeps and UV Express vans will not be able to ply routes after the Dec. 31 deadline.
The group’s national president, Mody Floranda, said about 60,000 drivers and 25,000 operators would join the growing ranks of the unemployed in the National Capital Region if the government sticks to its deadline.
Bautista, however, said there is a glut of jeepneys in Metro Manila, saying 200 jeepneys were serving one five-kilometer route.
He also said some 70 percent of all PUV operators will have consolidated by the end of the year.
But PISTON said this claim was misleading because the figure is only 26 percent in Metro Manila. Among UV Express drivers, only 36 percent have consolidated in the National Capital Region, it said.
Earlier this week, President Marcos said there would be no more extension to the Dec. 31 deadline for drivers and operators to consolidate.
“We cannot let the minority cause further delays and affect the majority of the operators, banks, financial institutions, and the public at large,” Marcos said.
The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Wednesday said it will not lift the number coding scheme in Metro Manila for the two-day transport strike.
It also said the inter-agency task force that has dealt with previous transport strikes has been reactivated.
“We will be doing our usual preparation. The task force was reactivated to monitor the situation at the command center in our office in Orense,” said MMDA chairman Romando Artes.
“The Command Center will monitor the situation and maintain order on affected routes while a central dispatch of rescue units to help stranded passengers,” Artes said.
The rescue vehicles —- trucks, buses, coasters, and mobile patrol cars — coming from the MMDA, Office of the Vice President, Office of the House Speaker, Philippine National Police, and local government units–are also being readied.
A special team of MMDA personnel is tasked to monitor ground conditions.
The two-day protest beginning Thursday would be the fifth major transport strike this year.