The government can mobilize the fleet of cars sitting idle in various government agencies, departments, and government-owned and controlled corporations, said Associated Labor Unions (ALU) Executive Vice President Gerard Seno.
“We appeal to the chief executive to immediately mobilize all idle government-purchased service vehicles to shuttle daily-paid workers whose employers are unable to provide them with shuttle service due to economic difficulties brought by a sixty-day community quarantine lockdown,” said Seno in a statement.
To note, public transport is still not allowed in areas under the modified enhanced community quarantine.
“With government vehicles temporarily providing shuttle will help both the economically distressed businesses and incomeless workers who lost their sources of livelihood during the lockdown to slowly recover,” said Seno.
The Kilusang Mayo Uno said that workers should be provided with safe transportation as “returning to work in this epidemic is hazardous.”
“If the government and business want to resume operations, they should provide transportation for workers. Workers cannot be made to suffer from walking for hours over long distances. We want to work to contribute to economy, get the economy running again, and because there is no or very little aid coming to our families,” said KMU Secretary General Jerome Adonis in a statement.
Adonis suggested to resume the operations of public transportation on areas under modified enhanced community quarantine, “provided with operational guidelines for safety and health.”
“Companies should provide transportation to workers, but public transportation is really key to enable workers [to] traverse major thoroughfares of Metro Manila. Aside from trains and buses, public utility jeepneys are also needed at least for collector roads,” he said. - By Analou De Vera
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