• THERESA MAE DULMAN
Drivers and operators under the Kabacod Negros Transport Organization (KNETCO) and the United Negros Drivers and Operators Center (Undoc-Piston) will push through with the transport strike in Bacolod today and tomorrow, to protest rising fuel prices.
KNETCO president Lilian Sembrano confirmed that the protest will run daily from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Transport groups will assemble at the Bata and Magsaysay flyovers as designated strike centers.
Sembrano appealed to the city government and the Bacolod City Police Office to allow the peaceful demonstration and refrain from dispersing their members, noting past experiences.
Rudy Catedral, president of the Bacolod Alliance of Commuters, Operators, and Drivers-Negros Island (Bacodni-Manibela), said their members will continue regular route operations to maintain public transport availability during the strike.
Catedral’s group conducted a two-hour protest Sept. 28 at the BCGC replica at the Bacolod plaza in lieu of an earlier announced whole-day demonstration.
A dialogue between local transport leaders and Mayor Greg Gasataya was also held Sept. 28, where operators voiced their urgent appeals, including the temporary suspension of the 12 percent value-added tax on petroleum products, and the repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law.
Gasataya assured the transport groups that their right to peaceful protest would be respected while ensuring public safety across the city.
Catedral said that during the dialogue, the mayor committed to provide rice to their members. | TMD
