NEWSFLASH

TRANSPORT STRIKE CRIPPLES BICOL, VISAYAS, MINDANAO

Davao City, March 31, 2000 - The transportation strike failed in Metro Manila, but grounded 98% of mass transport in Davao City with the cooperation of some 10,000 members of the Transport Mindanao for Independence, Solidarity and Nationalism and the Southeastern Mindanao Diversified Drivers and Operators Cooperative joined the strike spearheaded by the Katawhan Kontra Kartel (KKK) and the radical Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).

Other Mindanao cities affected by the protest action were Tagum, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos and Butuan.

The Davao City government deployed at least 50 buses and 20 dump trucks to take stranded commuters to their destination.

In Cebu City, drivers affiliated with Bayan claimed that their strike was successful, paralyzing 60 percent of public transport in the city. However, the city's traffic enforcement office said the protest action paralyzed only 20 percent.

The PNP said at least six regions were not affected by the transport strike: the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Western Mindanao, Eastern Mindanao, the Cordilleras including Baguio City and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao continued to ply their routes.

However, the cities of Bacolod, Dumaguete and Tagbilaran, as well as Compostela and Davao provinces were severely affected.

In Cotabato City, even combat-ready Marines deployed their trucks and armored personnel carriers to far-flung areas to help address the shortage of mass transport.

"This is an opportunity for us to prove to the people in the province that we came here not for war, but to help and protect the people regardless of their faith, ethnic origins and political affiliation," a military officer said.

In the Bicol Region, the local LTO office reported that the strike totally paralyzed mass transport in the province of Sorsogon, as well as in Naga City and Iriga town in Camarines Sur and Tabaco town in Albay.

But the situation was normal in the capital towns of Daet in Camarines Norte and Virac in Catanduanes.

Central Luzon police director Chief Superintendent Roberto Calinisan claimed the strike failed in his region, but public transportation was reportedly at a standstill in the provinces of Pampanga, Bulacan, Bataan and Tarlac.