NCRPO and NCRCOM go on full alert for Tuesday's transport strike

By Ronron
March 10, 2008

Police and military forces in Metro Manila go on full alert Monday night ahead of the scheduled transport strike in the capital and some areas in nearby provinces by various groups in protest to ticketing policies of local government units (LGU's).

The highest alert level takes effect 6pm and is expected to last only until Tuesday evening, officials said.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) National Capital Region Command (NCRCOM) chief Maj. Gen. Fernando Mesa said they will go on full alert to ensure that their personnel are inside camp and ready to augment the police when required.

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) spokesman Sr. Supt. Rhodel Sermonia said different police units will be fielding vehicles to assist commuters who might be stranded due to lack of public transport vehicles.

The NCRPO will field 12 trucks; the five police districts with one truck each; the Quezon City Police District with another 192 multicabs; and, the Manila Police District with another 28 multicabs, said Sermonia.

The military, particularly from the NCRCOM, the Army, the Air Force and the Navy, will also commit their own transportation assets, said Mesa.

"We also seek the assistance of the private sector (in providing vehicles for stranded commuters)," Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Avelino Razon, Jr. said in a separate interview.

Razon and Mesa assured that these vehicles "are for free" to stranded commuters.

The "transport holiday" participants, led by the Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines (FEJODAP) and PASANG MASDA, among others, expect to have a hundred percent paralysis in the public transportation in the capital on Tuesday as they urged all jeepney, bus, FX, tricycle and pedicab drivers and operators not to ply their routes.

The strike begins at 12:01 am and ends midnight of Tuesday, FEJODAP National President Zenaida Maranan had said.

The groups complained that the traffic citation tickets of the LGU's, the collection of exorbitant fines, the proliferation of transport terminals particularly in the provinces, and the continuous issuance of new tricycle and pedicab franchises "breed widespread corruption on the road," to the detriment of their members.

In a meeting last week with said transport groups, Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Marius Corpuz said he will recommend that the Department of Transportation and Communication review the LGU ticketing policies and come up with recommended "uniform and equitable fees."

While the groups assured the PNP and the public that they will not turn violent as they hold their strike, Razon said "plain clothes policemen will be sent out to monitor areas of convergence of those participating in the strike."

"We will impose the No Permit, No Rally policy, but we will observe maximum tolerance," Razon said.

Asked how the police will deal with strikers who try to stop their fellow drivers from going about their daily routes, the PNP chief said: "We will enforce the law. It is unlawful to coerce others who do not want to participate in the strike."/DMS