Not just a transport strike

By Herman M. Lagon

The taxi smelled faintly of gasoline and menthol candy, the kind drivers chew to stay awake past lunch. It was a Sunday, quiet enough for conversation, and I asked the driver how things were. He did not hesitate. “Sir, net ko na lang mga trescientos singkwenta sa dose ka oras.” Around ₱350 after boundary and fuel. Not even close to the ₱550 minimum wage in this part of the country. He said it the way one reports the weather—flat, measured. Then he added, almost as an afterthought, that if gasoline reaches ₱120 per liter, he might stop driving altogether. “Wala na sense, Sir.” No drama. Just arithmetic. Three children still in basic education. An ailing mother at home. A twelve-hour day that barely feeds five mouths. I stepped out of that cab thinking less about traffic and more about thresholds—the quiet moment when work stops making sense.

Now place that voice in the middle of a transport strike. It is easy to see the placards and miss the math behind them. Behind the word “protest” is a harder truth: jeepney drivers can no longer afford to keep moving. Fuel has crossed ₱100+ for gasoline and ₱110+ for diesel, fares are still fixed, and take-home pay has dropped to ₱200-₱500 a day, barely the minimum wage. That is not a complaint—it is a warning. That is erosion—the slow draining of a livelihood into a fuel tank.

Across the country, this strain has already taken form. Transport groups have called for a nationwide strike, with actions carried out in major cities. Some groups have pushed through, while others have deferred their planned strikes this Monday and Tuesday, weighing the same difficult math—whether to lose a day’s income or continue losing more on the road. There is still a narrow path for dialogue. Renewed negotiations with concerned government agencies remain necessary, as the current response points to a sector running out of options.

To imagine the mind of a protesting driver, begin with the numbers they carry in their head. Boundary first. Fuel second. Food last. The order matters. A day’s earnings are not income; they are a sequence of deductions. A one-way trip that used to cost ₱300 in diesel now costs ₱500 or more. Twelve to fifteen hours on the road do not guarantee a decent take-home. Sometimes, the math collapses entirely. You drive longer, you earn less. You go home later, you bring less. There is a point where continuing to drive feels like paying to work.

There is also a different kind of pressure, one that does not show on a receipt. The guilt of telling a child that enrollment might have to wait. Behind every day is a hard choice—care for family or fuel for work. The exhaustion reaches the mind. Drivers begin asking why, not because they have given up, but because the balance is no longer there.

Critics of the strike often raise valid concerns. Commuters are stranded. Students arrive late. Daily routines are disrupted. Some fellow drivers also choose not to join, worried about losing even a day’s earnings. These are real costs. It is neither fair nor honest to dismiss them. A strike is, by design, disruptive. It interrupts normal life. It forces attention by withholding service. The frustration it causes is part of the message, but it is also the burden of those who choose to protest.

Yet to stop at inconvenience is to miss context. A driver who joins a strike is choosing to earn nothing for that day or the next. No boundary to pay, yes, but also no income to bring home. In a sector where many already live day-to-day, that is not a casual decision. It is a sacrifice. In other terms, it is a form of pag-antus, pagtitiis, or enduring hardship with a purpose. “Hindi madaling magprotesta,” as one might say. It only happens when enduring quietly is no longer enough. The strike is not a shortcut. It is the long way around a problem that has stopped responding to polite requests.

History offers perspective. Transport protests in the country are often criticized, sometimes fairly, but rarely understood in full. They have, time and again, forced fare reviews, unlocked subsidies, and compelled policymakers to act. Without them, many concerns would remain buried in reports no one reads. One may disagree with their timing or disruption, but the pattern is clear: when drivers move together—or refuse to move at all—institutions respond. Silence, in contrast, is easy to ignore.

From a wider view, the connection becomes clearer. The country’s reliance on imported oil means that conflicts abroad—like the ongoing Iran War—are felt almost immediately at home. Fuel prices rise, and soon after, so do the costs of moving, eating, and running a livelihood. Everyone is affected, but not equally.

Policy options exist, but each comes with its own compromise. Some have begun to call for a serious review—or repeal—of the Oil Deregulation Law, alongside stricter oversight of what appears, to many, as cartelized pricing behavior among oil players. Whether one agrees or not, these calls reflect a growing frustration with how prices are set and passed on. Despite the trumped-up, conflict-driven global fuel crisis, the ultimate question is how the burden should be shared. The drivers’ demands are simple and grounded. These are shaped by daily survival. Even a ₱5,000 one-time subsidy can be used up quickly when fuel alone takes most of it.

Protests are sometimes dismissed as “drama.” Sometimes they are. But more often, they are simply the last available tool of workers who feel unheard. A driver standing on the roadside with a placard is not performing ideology. He is translating his ledger into a message others can see. The anger, when it shows, is not manufactured. It is accumulated—from weeks of watching earnings shrink while expenses expand, from promises delayed or reversed, from the daily grind of making an honest living that no longer pays.

Even within the transport sector, disagreements exist. Some drivers choose to keep working, hoping to ride out the spike. Others join the strike, convinced that continuing to operate only deepens the loss. Both positions deserve respect. The difference lies in how each reads the same numbers. One sees a narrow path forward. The other sees a dead end. Neither is lazy. Neither is reckless. They are making different calculations under the same pressure.

For commuters who rely on daily travel, the situation feels immediate. Classes are affected. Attendance dips. Work slows down. Plans are adjusted. There is a temptation to ask why drivers cannot simply endure a little longer. The answer is already in that Sunday my conversation inside a taxi. Endurance has limits. If you drive for twelve hours and bring home ₱350, that is not just perseverance—it is already a warning sign. And when fuel climbs toward ₱120, the question naturally follows: “bakit pa ako bumibiyahe?” At that point, this is no longer just about drivers versus commuters. It becomes a shared strain. The same fuel price hits the jeepney, the vegetable delivery, the small neighborhood business, even the tricycle waiting outside your street.

What might help is to slow down and see things from where they sit. From the driver’s seat, where every decision starts with boundary, then fuel, then whatever is left for the family. To listen before offering solutions. Because policies built from lived experience tend to last longer than those written from a distance.

The strike will pass. It always does. The roads will fill again. But what matters is what remains after the noise fades. If nothing changes, the same story will repeat—only harder next time. If something shifts, even slightly, then the disruption would have meant something.

That Sunday, I paid my fare and said thank you. It felt small. Because gratitude does not buy fuel. But it reminded me: every ride carries a life we do not fully see. This protest is not about refusing to work. It is about asking that work still makes sense.

***

Doc H fondly describes himself as a “student of and for life” who, like many others, aspires to a life-giving and why-driven world grounded in social justice and the pursuit of happiness. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions he is employed or connected with.