The transport sector has been pushed to the limits. The continuous burden of the MMDA's traffic management schemes and numerous other traffic rules of the LTO and the LGUs have eventually put us on a very precarious and disadvantageous situation. The multiple ticketing schemes will not decongest Metro Manila nor will it help conserve energy. One, the MMDA is looking at the wrong targets, and two, the policy environment is all wrong. The MMDA, the LTO and the local government units in other regions should be held accountable for making life harder and harder for the transport workers and their families.
Now, the government imposes the expanded value added tax (E-VAT) which will only send gasoline prices to unprecedented heights. The National Transportworkers Union-Alliance of Progressive Labor (NTU-APL) reiterates our strongest objection to E-VAT. We vehemently deplore its effect on the situation or that as our income decreases the prices of goods and prime commodities increase.
Reforming the transport sector requires a far greater breadth of vision and commitment. The MMDA should not be a platform for politicians to launch their senatorial or other political bids. Worse, the government has been taking for granted if not completely ignoring the plight of the different sectors in the transport industry. With the E-VAT in place, transport workers are even bracing for harder times ahead. With oil prices continuing to reach new heights, transport workers will fall deeper into poverty.
The MMDA should demonstrate political will in helping find a solution to cushion the impact of such a policy on the transport sector, in constant dialogue and consultation with the sector. The executive and its corresponding transport agencies should focus their energies on helping the thousands of constituents affected by their policies, instead of coming up with punitive measures that punish transport workers. However, all of our efforts went for naught!
This is the reason why the transport sector will continue to press for our demands. And we cannot express and push for it better than holding a transport strike! We demand that policies that continue to make life harder for us be scrapped, such as the E-VAT. This is not the time to be imposing more and more draconian measures such as multiple ticketing schemes of the LGUs.
Contact: Bren Sayasa
NTU-National Coordinator
0906-2044037
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