NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, Philippines – Jeepney drivers here are taking on extra jobs and implementing an odd-even scheme to mitigate the impacts of oil price hikes caused by the Middle East crisis.

For 47-year-old jeepney driver Rudy Soriano of Bangga Dose, Barangay Zone 1, Talisay City, Negros Occidental, a take-home pay of more or less P200 a day is heartbreaking.

Before the Middle East crisis, Soriano had earned as much as P1,000 a day. Now, most of his income goes to his boundary (P700) and fuel (P2,700).

A jeepney driver who has plied the Talisay-Bacolod City route for two years now, Soriano said his current income is not enough to feed his family, including five children and two grandchildren.

“Grabe ka pa-it (It’s too painful) for us. P200 is meager. How can we live [decently] with this situation?” he asked in Hiligaynon.

Soriano joined other traditional jeepney drivers during a transport strike in Talisay and Bacolod on Wednesday, April 15. The strike started at 6 am and ended at around 10 am, forcing most colleges and universities in Talisay and Bacolod to halt classes.

“What we simply want is for [the] government to look for means to roll back the price of diesel at P55 per liter,” Soriano said.

“If not, then our agony as drivers will continue, making us the most vulnerable sector of society,” he added.

Soriano is a member of the United Negros Drivers and Operators Center (UNDOC), a local affiliate of the Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON).

Rodolfo Borris, 49, of Barangay Bata, Bacolod, and a jeepney driver for more than 10 years, said that with the current fuel crisis, he has no choice but to take another job as a mechanic.

“To be a jeepney driver now is no longer promising. Such couldn’t sustain my family with two children,” Borris told Rappler.

Borris, according to Rudy Agsam Catedral, president of the Bacolod Alliance for Commuters, Operators and Drivers in Negros Island (BACODNI), is now among the 30% of their driver-members who became construction workers or mechanics amid the crisis.

BACODNI, an affiliate of the Samahang Manibela, Mananakat at Nagkakaisang Terminal ng Transportasyon, is composed of more than 1,000 operators and drivers of traditional jeepneys in Bacolod.

Catedral lamented about the fare rates staying the same despite diesel prices reaching P130 to P150 per liter.

Aside from calling for a fuel price rollback, Catedral’s group, the Oil Price Coalition, is also lobbying for the government to provide them with ayuda (aid).

Jeepney owner-driver Jerome Cabia of Barangay Zone 12-A, Talisay, pointed out that if jeepney owners like him are already heavily affected by the crisis, imagine what it’s like for drivers who rent or pay a daily boundary rate.

The 58-year-old, who is also an UNDOC-PISTON member, said they have no choice but to implement an “odd-even scheme” they themselves designed to mitigate the impact of the crisis.

Under this scheme, only Talisay-Bacolod jeepney drivers with plates ending in odd numbers will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are for jeepneys with plates ending in even numbers.

Sundays are free-for-all.

“We designed this scheme for each and every one of us under UNDOC-PISTON [to] stay afloat with the current hurdle,” Cabia said. More than 100 jeepney units ply the Talisay-Bacolod route. – Rappler.com