LAST Monday’s nationwide jeepney transport strike could’ve been felt and paralyzed large areas particularly in Metro Manila but it quite fizzled out specifically in northern metropolis owing to the timely counter-moves by concerned local officials led by the mayors.
In Navotas alone, Mayor John Rey Tiangco was seen on major streets in the coastal city as early as 5 a.m. to personally check the deployment of public vehicles to pick up affected passengers particularly those Monumento, Caloocan-bound.
“Here in Navotas, we made sure that the transportation strike by jeepney drivers and operators wouldn’t largely affect many of our local commuters, hence the timely deployment of several public vehicles to ferry those affected,” Mayor Tiangco told this writer in a text message.
Similarly, Mayors Oscar ‘Oca’ Malapitan (Caloocan), Rex Gatchalian (Valenzuela) and Lenlen Oreta (Malabon) were seen preoccupied as they monitored the situation in their respective turfs especially on how the local enforcers managed to lessen the impact of the transport strike.
“While we respect the decision of the jeepney drivers and operators to air their grievances to the government, we are duty-bound to protect the interest of our much larger constituents who rely mainly on public transportation,” the mayors chorused.
Led by the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operators Nationwide, staged the transport holiday they aimed to stop the government modernization plan to phase out 15-year-old and older public utility jeepneys and replace them with modern and environment-friendly vehicles.
The group has claimed that the “Jeepney phase-out is cloaked with the words ‘modernization,’ ‘route rationalization,’ and other proponents of the Traffic Emergency Power being pushed in the Congress.”
It also criticized the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board for always reiterating that “they will simply replace old units with new ones when they ask too many requirements.”
MORE NEW PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS IN VALENZUELA
Consistent to his commitment that in Valenzuela no one will be left behind in education, Mayor Gatchalian led recently the inauguration of additional three new public high schools.
In separate city-wide celebrations, the public high schools, namely, Justice Eliezer R. delos Santos National High School, Veinte Reales National High School and Arkong Bato National High School were inaugurated to showcase how serious the local government was in prioritizing education, the mayor said.
The Justice Eliezer R. delos Santos NHS and Veinte Reales NHS were actually inaugurated late last month in time of Gatchalian’s birthday, the city’s public information office said.
Earlier, the local government said the Arkong Bato NHS was inaugurated along with the Barangay Arkong Bato covered court just in time of its 19th Charter Day celebration week.
Alongside the opening of these three new schools, Mayor Gatchalian has assured the local residents that all barangays with ‘significant population’ will have their own high schools.
As of this date, the city has 42 elementary schools and 25 high schools, this writer was told. GOOD RIDDANCE/ARLIE CALALO
