Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board chair Teofilo Guadiz reported last week that almost a dozen armed men aboard three vehicles "invaded" his house in an incident that seemed to have been made to look like a robbery.
Guadiz told the media that the incident traumatized his family, especially his 91-year-old mother, adding that he was clueless regarding the possible motive of the intruders. He nonetheless said it could be more personal without elaborating.
The armed men descended on the LTFRB chief's residence last 13 December amid continuing efforts by some sectors to derail the government's long-overdue Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program, or PUVMP.
In investigating a very serious home invasion clearly intended to threaten the official, the Philippine National Police should look at all angles and connect the dots, if there are any worth connecting.
On 31 December, the period for PUV operators and drivers to consolidate or form themselves into corporations or cooperatives under the PUVMP would end. Pushed back many times over, the deadline this time around has been cast in stone after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. refused to extend it.
According to the President, over 70 percent of players in the public transport sector have embraced the PUVMP and consolidated, thus it's a go, with or without the holdouts.
This definitive statement by the President sends the strong message that there's no holding back progress toward having land mass transport systems that are efficient while environmentally friendly.
As the marching order to proceed with the PUVMP is already coming from the top, whatever "pressure" is being applied on transport officials at the Department of Transportation and LTFRB should not amount to anything.
The desperation of the PUVMP holdouts is appalling as even after their previous transport holidays fizzled out, they are now planning a two-week strike as if that would bring the government and the public to their knees.
The strikers, in their past activities, had resorted to harassing other drivers, according to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority. Nails were reportedly strewn on the paths of some modern e-jeepneys, resulting in flat tires.
The signages of some jeepneys (possibly those driven by PUVMP embracers) were also seized by some of the strikers, according to the reports that reached the MMDA. These actions, if repeated by the strikers in their next planned transport holiday, should already merit police action.
We cannot be held hostage by the thuggish actions of those who insist on keeping the status quo of dilapidated and smoke-belching traditional jeepneys clogging our narrow roads.
The MMDA and other government agencies, including those at the local level, must be ready to provide free rides during the two-week strike being bandied about by the holdovers.
They cannot allow anarchy to reign on the streets just because a small group of people think they can get away with what they want even if that would be sacrificing the greater good.
What we have here are rebels without a cause, with their two-week tantrum of a transport strike being as delusional as a Kardashian expecting Oscar glory. They're like barnacles clinging to rusty steering wheels at the bottom of the ocean.
So let them strike, throw their tantrums, and wallow in the fumes of their own anachronism. The public, finally freed from the tyranny of underpowered sardine cans, will cheer from the sidewalks.
