Poe asks transport groups to reconsider, call off strike

Sen. Grace Poe is calling on transport groups to reconsider their plan to hold a nationwide strike tomorrow and instead sit down with the Senate committee on public services next Thursday to air their concerns over the jeepney modernization program.

“I am appealing to transport groups Piston and the Stop Jeepney Phaseout Coalition to reconsider and call off their planned strike and sit down with us in the committee so that the Senate can hear their concerns

regarding the proposed jeepney modernization program of the government,” Poe, chair of the Senate public services committee, said.

The transport groups have announced plans to stage a two-day strike tomorrow and Tuesday to protest the implementation of the jeepney modernization program, which President Duterte said should commence at the start of 2018.

“I understand that certain issues in the modernization program still need to be carefully studied and threshed out with the conAccording cerned government agencies,” she added.

Poe said she is ready to listen to transport groups and other stakeholders and offer alternative proposals or refinements to the jeepney modernization program.

The jeepney modernization program involves the nationwide phaseout of existing jeepneys deemed poorly maintained and polluting.

In opposing the program, jeepney owners and operators cited the huge expenses on their part if the program is forced on them. They warned many drivers and operators would lose their livelihhood as a result.

“Their problems are not theirs alone, but that of the entire nation that depends on the kind of public transportation they offer,” Poe said.

“Let us sit down and talk and find ways to move forward with solutions that are socially just and feasible,” she added.