By MARK FRANCISCO
THE Northern Mindanao Federation of Transport Cooperatives led by chief execuive officer Luzminda Escobidal overwhelmingly held a unity walk August 5 in opposition to the resolution of 22 senators seeking to suspend the public transport modernization program.
More than 200 PUV owners, drivers, conductors and inspectors joined the unity walk early Monday from Gaston to De Lara parks in Cagayan de Oro City or a total of 1.4 kilometers.
Escobidal assured the commuting public that their services were not hampered by the unity walk since strikes are a violation of their respective franchises.
The Northern Mindanao Federation of Transport Cooperatives is composed of 52 cooperatives with more than 200 modernized units plying the city and its peripheries. This does not yet include old jeepneys that have already consolidated into their group.
In a surprise move that clashed the policies of the administration, 22 out of 23 senators cutting across party lines initiated and approved a resolution July 31 calling for the suspension of the modernization program and citing its flaws.
They were seemingly influenced by the insistent lobbying on leftist groups Piston and Manibela who represent only 19 percent of the public transport sector in the country.
On the same day, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) immediately quashed the modernized transport sector’s fears and informed President Marcos that there is no logic in suspending the program at this point.
Still, this has not allayed Escobidal’s group and proceeded with the unity walk anyway, fearing that the calls to scrap modernization would gain traction.
“Public transport modernization has been conceptualized since the Ramos administration. Why did you not express your opposition all these years? Why only now nga nahinayak na mi? Dako na kaayo among investment sa modernization unya sa usa ka pamilok wagtangon lang?” Escobidal told the senators.
The Northern Mindanao Federation of Transport Cooperatives is joined by other federations nationwide in the simultaneous unity walks, representing a whooping 83 percent of the public transport sector in the country.
