(Eagle News) — Bayan Muna Party-List Representative Carlos Zarate on Monday blasted the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board for saying that based on reports, the two-day transport strike was part of a destabilization plot against the administration.
“Sobra namang praning ng LTFRB at pati transport strike ay idadawit sa destabilisasyon. Bawal na bang ipaglaban ang kanilang hanapbuhay o magprotesta ang mga tsuper at operator laban sa martial law? Bawal na bang tutulan ang phase out ng mga jeep at pagtaas ng presyo ng langis?” Zarate said in a statement.
According to the militant solon, the accusations by the LTFRB were “malicious,” even as he said the agency was not doing anything to address the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide’s concerns.
He was referring to the militant transport group that organized the two-day transport strike to protest the government’s planned jeepney modernization program.
“If all protest actions are to be tagged as part of a destabilization plot then this administration is really trying to clamp down on the exercise of the people’s right to assembly and freedom of expression,” he said.
He also noted that the government was “so afraid of the people’s wrath due to extra-judicial killings, all out attack of the AFP on Lumads and skyrocketing prices of basic goods and services.”
It is because of these “concrete worsening (situation) of the political and economic rights of Filipinos,” he said, that “the people have no other choice but to struggle against them.”
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