Caloocan City Mayor Dale Gonzalo “Along” Malapitan suspended the face-to-face classes in all levels of private and public schools in the city for the week-long transportation strike set on Monday, March 6 to 12.
The said strike will be composed of at least 40,000 public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers that will protest against the jeepney modernization program of the national government.
"Para sa kapakanan ng ang ating mga estudyanteng maaapektuhan ng tigil-pasada sa susunod na linggo, pansamantala pong ipagpapaliban ang face-to-face classes (For the sake of our students who will be affected by the strike, the face-to-face classes will be temporarily postponed)," Malapitan announced in a Facebook post on Friday, March 3.
Meanwhile, the mayor said online classes will be implemented at all levels in public and private schools in the city.
"Hindi maaaring maapektuhan ang pag-aaral ng ating mga estudyante dahil sa tigil-pasada kaya mula March 6 hanggang March 12, balik online class muna ang mga estudyante. I hope the parents, teachers and students would understand that we need to adjust accordingly (Our students should not be affected, so from March 6 to March 12, students will return to online classes temporarily. I hope the parents, teachers, and students would understand that we need to adjust accordingly)," he expressed.
He also said that the city is ready to deploy over 65 shuttles for its free ride program “Alalay sa Mananakay: Libreng Sakay” throughout the duration of the strike.
"We consolidated all the available vehicles of the city and we are ready to provide free rides to our affected commuters. We also prioritized the areas that would possibly be heavily affected by the said strike and identified the route and the pick-up and drop-off points of our free rides," said Malapitan.
The local chief executive also ordered operatives of the Caloocan City Police Station (CCPS) to increase police visibility on the city roads and highways.
Malapitan stated that 85 percent of the transport groups in the city support the jeepney modernization programs and were already consolidated into cooperatives and corporations.