Bus operators who are proven to have participated in Monday's strike may get their franchises suspended or canceled altogether, authorities said Tuesday as they expressed disbelief over a transport group's claim that the strike was not intended. Department of Transportation and Communications Secretary Jose "Ping" de Jesus said bus operators will not be exempt from sanctions even if the operators claimed that the lack of buses on Monday was caused by miscommunication with drivers without cellphones who did not go to work because they thought there was indeed a strike. "I think whether you call it a strike or not, the effect is there and everybody felt the effect," De Jesus said at a press briefing in Malacañang. De Jesus said there was even one report about a bus operator locking the garage to keep drivers from plying their routes.
At least three thousand passengers were stranded early Monday, according to the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), as they jostled for space in the few buses that plied the stretch of EDSA from Quezon City to Ortigas and Mandaluyong City. Reports also said many passengers were stranded in Kamuning and East Avenue in Quezon City. However, Integrated Metro Bus Operators Association president Claire de la Fuente said
drivers, and not operators, should be blamed for what happened. She claimed that there was no strike at all. Still, MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino maintained that there was a strike, which he described as "planned, deliberate and concerted efforts on the parts of holders of certificates of public convenience to disrupt the delivery of basic services to the prejudice of the riding public." Tolentino said the MMDA learned of the planned strike as early as Wednesday last week. The strike was staged on Monday when the MMDA started implementing a
number-coding scheme that bars buses from plying Metro Manila’s main roads depending on the last digit of their license plates. Buses with plate numbers ending in 1 and 2 were the first to be affected.
Consultations Tolentino said consultations were being conducted on the number coding scheme since 2004 until October 2010. "
Yun pong sinasabi nilang walang consultation,
hindi po totoo yun. Ang consultation
po namin ay nakavideotape pa (It's not true that there were no consultations. The consultations were even videotaped)," Tolentino said at the same press conference in Malacañang. Initial reports indicate that there were around 100 bus operators who participated in the strike, although the number could be trimmed down because some eventually fielded buses in the afternoon, said Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) chairperson Nelson Laluces. Laluces said the LTFRB will hold hearings to determine who will be sanctioned for the strike, adding that more comprehensive reports on who participated may come in by Wednesday. De Jesus, Tolentino, and Laluces held the press briefing after meeting with President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III in Malacañang on Tuesday morning. Aquino ordered the DOTC not just to investigate the strike that occurred but also to hold dialogues with government agencies and stakeholders on what other measures should be taken to reduce traffic in EDSA and other major roads in the metro, De Jesus said. "He (Aquino) considers this as a problem for all of us. It's not just the bus operators, it's not just the riding public, it's all of us together and therefore we should try to find a common solution together," De Jesus said.
Dialogue Among those who will be included in the dialogue are bus operators, the DOTC, the LTFRB, the MMDA, the Land Transportation Office, and other concerned agencies. Among the measures the government is eyeing is the uniform dispatch of buses and the color-coding scheme, De Jesus said. In the meantime, the imposition of the number-coding scheme will continue despite the strike, Tolentino said. Laluces said the said scheme will take out around 700 to 900 buses from the number of buses plying major Manila roads daily. "This will be a great help to ease traffic congestion in EDSA and it will also help prevent too much pollution," he said.
— RSJ, GMANews.TV 
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