Tags: Piston

Since the Arroyo regime expanded the value-added tax on oil and since the implementation of the oil-deregulation law, most jeepney drivers have to work long hours, often up to 14 hours a day. If they don’t, whatever money they earn for the day will only further enrich the oil companies — and they go home penniless. Think about this the next time you are tempted to curse jeepney drivers for being uncouth, discourteous and undisciplined, as the government is wont to depict them.

Public-transport drivers and operators in several urban areas across the country – including, for the first time, Makati City – denounce the measly oil-price rollbacks by the Big Three oil companies, as well as their “manipulation” of the prices of oil and gas products, such as LPG, to the detriment of unorganized and ordinary consumers.

“It’s like we’re now working only for oil companies and traffic-regulating agencies,” said George San Mateo, secretary-general of the Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (Piston), on the increase in traffic violation fines. BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO AND MARIANNE FAYE B. MIRAMBEL LABOR WATCH Bulatlat Mario San Juan, 46, a jeepney driver,…

As drivers in Metro Manila and other key cities nationwide are expected to launch a transport strike May 12, the militant transport group here would stage a march-rally with red flags and banners demonstrating drivers’ demands. BY JOHN ERIC B. ESCALANTE Northern Dispatch Posted by Bulatlat Vol. VIII, No. 14, May 11-17, 2008 BAGUIO CITY…