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BACOLOD CITY: Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra enjoins the Catholic
faithful to join the two-day transportation strike today and show
their “indignation” to spiraling fuel costs.
Organizers believe they can paralyze 95 percent
of public transport, although authorities expect a much lower
turnout—this, after Vallacar Transit, the biggest bus liner
operating in Negros Occidental and other parts of Visayas and
Mindanao, expressed that they would not be joining the protest.
In a pastoral letter over the weekend, the
bishop urged the people to “call for immediate government
intervention,” citing the scrapping of the Reformed Value Added
Tax and the Oil Deregulation Law as well as nationalization of the
oil industry.
“Our government officials who have vowed to
serve and protect the people seem to have forgotten their sacred
pledge,” Bishop Navarra said.
The pastoral letter, read during Sunday masses
yesterday said it is time for us “not to allow unjust measures
that continue to oppress people,” urging everyone to “hold hands
and expose the wolves hiding in the cloak of darkness in the guise
of sheep’s clothing.”
Government offices, however, will remain open
with a skeletal force while the province has planned carpooling and
will deploy vehicles for their employees so that operations will not
be disrupted.
-- Ma. Ester L. Espina
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