Tonyo Cruz By Tonyo Cruz   This week, we witnessed anew the Duterte regime’s modus operandi against its perceived enemies. Luckily for the nation, it didn’t work out as the palace had apparently planned. I’m referring to President Duterte’s decision to cancel classes at all school levels in Metro Manila supposedly in response to “imminent threats” posed by a transport strike. The media dutifully reported Duterte’s class cancellation and rather-more-politely-than-necessary also reported that there was in fact no transport strike on Tuesday as clarified by transport group Piston. Thanks to critical thinking skills that appear to be spreading more widely among us, many students saw the motive of the class cancellation: to pit students against jeepney drivers, and to demonize Piston as a source of “imminent threats.” Students of various persuasions ignored the ruse, and instead said without hesitation that if there was any imminent threat to the youth, it is not coming from jeepney drivers who ferry them to school. It is coming from the Duterte regime for so many reasons that we can’t fit all of them in this column. Ateneo de Manila’s student council even released a statement asking the university administration to ignore and defy the class cancellation and to hold classes on Tuesday. In the Duterte regime’s cold calculation, it was worth it to suspend classes in all Metro Manila schools, colleges, and universities at all levels — if that’s what it would take to isolate Piston, the jeepney drivers’ federation that leads protests against the regime’s jeepney phaseout plan. The attempt to isolate, demonize, and dehumanize Piston and jeepney drivers didn’t work. Many quickly pointed out that jeepney drivers have a right to oppose the phaseout plan, and that the Duterte regime is obligated to listen to them as part of the democratic process. The implementation of Duterte’s jeepney phaseout plan deserves the widest possible public participation and feedback. Political will is needed not in the imposition of undemocratic policies, but in finding solutions to the problematic mass transport system in Metro Manila. Those of us who say they support Duterte in his effort to phaseout the jeepneys should pause and study the actual plan and exactly why Piston is opposing. The “modernization program” Duterte and the DOTr are eager to implement is totally different from what many people have in mind. A prize-winning painting by Paul Taladtad, titled “Jeeploma,” circulated online and powerfully helped shine light on some of the core issues raised by Piston: That the phaseout plan excludes jeepney drivers and their families, and that government has in fact nearly dehumanized them in the mad dash to phase out jeepneys. It is yet another campaign to discredit, demonize, and dehumanize a particular sector deemed by the regime as foes. It is just like what the regime does to drug addicts, activists, New People’s Army rebels, the chief justice, the Ombudsman, and Commission on Human Rights. We have hundreds of thousands of jeepney drivers nationwide. They have families to feed, and children to send to school. They cannot possibly be considered as the villains here. They run our main Public Utility Vehicles, and they perform a thankless daily task moving our people by the millions every day. The jeepney phaseout plan had been suspended in Davao City, upon the request of Mayor Inday Sara Duterte. No apprehensions there whatsoever. Everyone should take a second look at the reason cited by Mayor Duterte for suspending the jeepney phaseout in the president’s bailiwick. She said Davao City is not yet ready. The thing is: No town or city is ready. There’s no mass production of the magical new jeepneys. Neither are there deliveries of new units by the thousands as needed in Metro Manila and major urban centers. No tests as to whether these new jeepneys could sustain the current routes, especially those in the provinces. There are also no existing financing plans that jeepney drivers and operators could avail of. If we are not ready, then why the rush and the insistence to apprehend jeepney drivers in Metro Manila? The answer could be in a saying that appears to be gospel truth in Malacañang and DDS nowadays: “Ang gusto ng hari ay di maaaring mabali.” Sadly for the “hari” and fortunately for the country, more and more Filipinos resist the imposed status of serfdom as an unacceptable substitute to citizenship. In this resistance, the jeepney drivers led by Piston have claimed and attained a place of honor. They don’t think and act like slaves, but as citizens. We thus must not only defend them. We must emulate their struggle for dignity and rights as our fellow citizens.