If plans push through, commuters will have to endure the difficulty of finding jeepneys to ferry them to and from Cebu City on Monday.
This is because members of the Cebu group of the Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston), which has more than 300 members, are set to hold a protest rally on Monday from 8 a.m. to 6 pm.
They will express their sentiments against the Joint Administrative Order (JAO) 2014-01 of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) which imposes higher penalties on traffic violations starting last June 19.
They will march from barangay Maguikay, Mandaue City to the offices of the LTO-7 and the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) in Cebu City.
Greg Perez, Piston-Cebu coordinator, said the government agencies have not acted on their concerns about the order.
Affected routes will be Talamban, V. Rama, Englis, Pardo, Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu City, Liloan and Consolacion.
Piston-Cebu also aired disappointment with the Cebu City government which had promised to help them with their JAO concerns but “until now, there is no result or update from the public hearing we had with the Cebu City Council.”
LTO-7 Director Arnel Tancinco said that they can’t stop Piston-Cebu members from exercising their rights.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama directed Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella to discuss with the Council the request to waive their accumulated fines.
“It’s a matter that I can’t grant right away because it’s a law,” Rama said.
“If we’re talking about penalty condonation, what about those who already paid?” Rama asked.
Citom executive director Rafael Yap said the request is not something Citom can act on, but he said the city stands to lose hundreds of millions in revenues if they grant the request to condone accumulated penalties.
“If we waive it now, they will just accumulate it after a couple of years,” Yap said.
On Monday, the Cebu City government is prepared to deploy buses to ferry stranded passengers, said Councilor Dave Tumulak, who expects the Talisay city government to do the same.
City buses will be deployed at the SM and Ayala malls and near Malacañang sa Sugbu.
“We already have a template on what to do during strikes. We just have to implement it,” he said.
Most schools are on semestral break so Tumulak said the protest may have minimal effect.