Students confused; motorists, commuters inconvenienced

Protesters converge at the corner of N. Bacalso Ave., P. del Rosario St. and Osmeña Blvd. where they aired their complaints through short presentations, banners and placards showing their stand on issues they are fighting for.
CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON

Protesters converge at the corner of N. Bacalso Ave., P. del Rosario St. and Osmeña Blvd. where they aired their complaints through short presentations, banners and placards showing their stand on issues they are fighting for.
CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON

No classes order causes confusion; traffic due to rally dismays drivers, passengers

Confusion for most students and parents bringing their children to their respective schools and finding out that classes have been suspended again, and discomfort and dismay for several motorists caught in the traffic gridlock caused by hundreds of protesters, blocking Mandaue and Cebu City streets were the sentiments of the day in Metro Cebu on the second day of the nationwide transport strike.

Some schools, however, decided to hold half-day classes because several students showed up to their respective school and did not know of the late Palace’s announcement to suspend classes for the day for both public and private schools in all levels.

The late Monday night announcement retracted Palace’s earlier announcement of resuming classes and work.

“It’s really confusing, especially that I already arrived at school when they informed me that our class was suspended. It’s a waste of time and money,” said Rafunzel Coleigne Variacion, a 4th year Mass Communication student from the University of the Visayas.

Variacion said that she was dismayed when she was told after arriving in school that classes have been suspended.

The Palace ordered the suspension of work and classes for both public and private schools for Tuesday citing inclement weather and the transport strike as the reasons for the order.

Classes held

Several universities and schools in Cebu, however, decided to hold classes despite the Palace order.

These included the University of Cebu, University of San Jose-Recoletos, Colegio de Inmaculada Concepcion – Mandaue and Gorordo Campuses, Colegio del Sto. Niño (Morning only), University of San Carlos (Senior High School), and Saint Theresa’s College-Cebu.

UC Chancellor

Candice Gotianuy, UC’s Chancellor, in her statement on her Facebook account, said that they’ve decided to resume their classes since Malacañang’s announcement came late.

“Please be informed that classes resume on Tuesday, 17 October. Malacañang’s announcement of suspension came at 10:30 p.m., Monday. Too late to disseminate,” Gotianuy said.

“Also, per news sources, Cebu will not be joining in the strike or will have it at a minimum. Classes resume. There is much to do,” she added.

No classes

Several schools, however, also heeded the Palace order to suspend classes.

These included Southwestern University, Cebu Technological University, Cebu Eastern College, Cebu Institute of Technology-University (excluding teaching staff), Asian College of Technology, University of the Visayas – Main Campus, Cebu Normal University, and University of the Philippines – Cebu.

Aside from that, the Department of Education also proceeded with their scheduled seminars for public teachers in the region yesterday.

According to Amaryllis Villarmia, information officer of DepEd-7, the department has an ongoing training and seminars for teachers, for their curriculum and inclusive education program.

“These are urgent activities especially those participants have already arrived. We can’t just re-schedule those activities,” Villarmia said.

She added that though on the DepEd’s memorandum, private schools are included in the declaration of suspension of classes, they still have the discretion to suspend classes or not, especially that Piston members in Cebu no longer held a strike on Tuesday.

Villarmia also advised teachers to schedule their make-up classes for 2 days in order to complete the school calendar for this year.

“They can have make-up class on weekdays or weekends, as long as they can complete the 202 DepEd calendar days,” she added.

Traffic

Meanwhile, motorists in parts of Mandaue and Cebu City expressed their dismay at the discomfort that they experienced after they were caught in the traffic gridlock caused by the protesters marching to their meeting places at the intersection of N. Bacalso Ave., P. del Rosario St. and Osmeña Blvd.

Francisco Ouano, Cebu City Transportation Office operations chief, said that the protesters followed their order for them to use only one lane in marching to their meeting places, but this still caused traffic in these areas.

Ouano said that the five-minute presentation and rally at Osmeña boulevard caused a brief disruption of the traffic flow in the downtown area.
Yesterday’s rally, however, was held by several cause-oriented groups, who included the protesting drivers.

Jaime Paglinawan, Bayan Central Visayas chairman, said that they had no intention of disrupting traffic flow in the city and causing inconvenience to motorists and commuters and asked for understanding to the public because this is their way to present their problems to the government.