Successful transport strike. Piston and Manibela launched a transport strike on April 15-16 to demand the withdrawal of the April 30 deadline for mandatory consolidation of franchises and the return of their 5-year individual franchises. About 80% of major routes in Metro Manila were affected and several parts of Cavite and Laguna were paralyzed. On the first day, up to 400 jeepneys participated in the protest and caravan to LTFRB, where they spent the night. The next day, drivers and operators convoyed to the Welcome Rotonda at the Quezon City and Manila border.

Similar transport strikes were held in Iloilo, Bacolod and Cebu, and protests in Davao. This activity is part of a series of actions planned by the two transport groups until the end of the month.

Call for dismantling of NTF-Elcac, reiterated. Members of the KMP and other peasant groups protested on April 12 before the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency in Quezon City to condemn the NTF-ELCAC’s inclusion of the KMP among the 30 organizations tagged as Party and NPA “fronts”. They say red-tagging is part of the Marcos regime’s intensified harassment against legal and legitimate mass organizations, in line with counterinsurgency operations outlined in US guidelines.

Red Friday protest for wages launched. Workers launched the first Red Friday Protest for higher wages and against the pro-capitalist and pro-imperialist PUVMP on April 12 in Marikina City, and at Monumento, Caloocan. They condemned Ferdinand Marcos Jr who they say constantly prates about cha-cha (charter change) but remains silent on the issue of wages. They stressed that wage increases granted by regional wage boards last year are too little and too late.