The Distress of Strike

You have one chance, one life, and what you do with it? It’s up to you.

The urban people have just suffered from another strike, less than a month from now. Without a doubt, it paralyzed the core of Manila at least for a light Tuesday.

Take a look at this newsreel:

• Transport groups call off strike after Arroyo signed EO. Transport groups called off their Metro Manila-wide strike Tuesday noon after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued an executive order calling for the suspension of local government laws on traffic ordinances.
• The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority will call a meeting with Metro mayors and transport leaders on Monday in a final attempt to get them to agree to the single-ticketing scheme.
• The militant group Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (Piston) is readying a series of protest actions to be led by its chapters in the provinces to denounce the latest increase in fuel prices.

If you are a white professional, I mean wearing white – dealing with strike is at any rate a great misfortune, more than a bad luck for you. And this may undeniably call for a bad morning and a bad trip as well. This is commensurately equal for students, who used to be the primary users of the road during weekdays, for the mothers who struggle to get in touch with the nearest market; finally, the same scenario goes with the inconvenient fate of office workers, employees and others.

But it is not the case for drivers; I see it not as a rest day but a day of sacrifice – subsistence lifestyle of drivers cannot drive them up to participate actively to that mass-based strike. It is a sacrifice as they give up the whole day pay (not to mention boundary compensation for non-owners) in turn of an uncertain reform they are campaigning -- not to account the families whose incomes are insufficient for a day-to-day life.

Masisisi mo ba si Mang Pedro kung ayaw niyang sumali sa strike ng mga dyip bukas?
Matitiis kaya ni Mang Oscar ang pamilya niyang nakadepende lang sa iuuwi niyang lutong ulam?
Sobrang prinsipyo na ang paiiralin ng isang ama kung isasakripisyo niya ang isang araw para sa gutom na kalamnan ng kanyang pamilya.