Transport strike hurts business most

Gov’t overreacted

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) said the two-day transport strike and suspension of work in government will have substantial impact on the economy.

ECOP Governor President Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. lamented Malacañang’s “overreaction” to the transport strike.

“It’s an overreaction,” said Ortiz-Luis referring to Malacañang’s decision.

Malacañang suspended nationwide government work and classes in public schools as a result of the 2-day transport strike staged by jeepney operators and drivers. The most tangible and immediate negative impact, he said, was on the daily wage earners who lost two days of no pay.

Ortiz-Luis said that while Malacañang did not suspend the private sector work, some of their employees were not able to report for work because there were no public transportation.

ECOP has no data yet if private firms also suspended operations last Monday and Tuesday, but Ortiz-Luis said that several employees failed to show up for work.

“We don’t know yet if there were companies that also closed for two days, but some employees failed to report for work,” he said.

Companies’ productivity also suffered from the two-day suspension of work among government agencies.

“We cannot yet quantify the losses because we don’t know yet what and how companies also stopped work for two days,” he said.

Because of the suspension of work in government agencies, companies cannot also conduct banking transactions.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas suspended clearing on Monday while the Philippine Stock Exchange also suspended trading.

Despite continued suspension of work in government agencies the second day of the transport strike, the BSP and PSE already resumed operations on Tuesday.