By JOHN RIZLE L. SALIGUMBA
Davao Today
Davao City – Organizers of a transport strike announced they are calling off the protest action and will hold, instead, a “solidarity action” to help victims of Typhoon Yolanda in the Visayas region.
Transmision-PISTON spokesperson Edil Gonzaga said their group will be calling public utility drivers to “chip-in” a minimum of P20 to this cause.
“We agreed to a P20 each for starters per driver, excluding other forms of relief such as food items and clothing. They are more than happy to give, as they can earn it in only a day since the transport strike was postponed,” said Gonzaga.
Gonzaga said he is worried of his colleagues in Cebu, Iloilo, Panay and Capiz, as communication lines had been down since the storm struck Friday.
“They still are out of contact, maybe because the typhoon destroyed communication lines,” said Gonzaga.
Earlier, drivers have planned for a transport strike on November 13 to scrap the pork barrel system, a system, which they say, use funds that come from exorbitant collections of expanded value-added tax (EVAT) in gasoline and commodities. Monthly EVAT collections in Davao’s vehicle owners amount to P118 million.
Other allied groups like the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) are supporting the drivers’ moves saying they will instead launch a relief drive for Yolanda victims.
Bayan Southern Mindanao spokesperson Sheena Duazo said they are postponing the November 13 protest to give way for a nationwide effort to gather relief goods for the storm-ravaged areas that left thousands dead and millions of families homeless.
Duazo said “the groups (supposedly) assigned to persuasion points will instead scour … to ask for donations and relief goods.”
Protesters will be going around establishments and communities in a “rekorida’ (vehicle mounted public address system) to solicit donations.
Calls for relief intensified after images showed cities of Tacloban, Ormoc and Samar leveled and washed out from super typhoon Yolanda, leaving thousands dead, communications and power supply down, and millions more in need of food and shelter.
Duazo said they would be forming a team that will bring the collected relief goods to certain areas in Visayas.
She added that they would hold a short protest Wednesday 3 pm after their day-long relief drive, demanding for decisive action and transparency from government.
“Disasters aggravate because needed facilities and materials for disaster preparedness and response are corrupted by politicians like what happened with the PDAF,” Duazo said.
Duazo added that disasters hit mostly the poor, as she pointed out Eastern and Western Visayas are among the ten poorest regions with poverty incidence rate of 37.3 % and 24.7% respectively. (John Rizle L. Saligumba/ davaotoday.com)
abolish pork, Strike, Yolanda
