The secretary general of the United Negros Drivers Operators Center declared yesterday that their two-day transportation strike in Negros Occidental was a success and that their demands have reached Malacañang.

Jessie Ortega said 90 percent of public transportation joined their second-day strike in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental yesterday.

The strikers who were demanding government action versus  the P4 to P5 per liter higher price of fuel in Negros Occidental compared to  the National Capital Region, and the spiraling increases in fuel prices capped their protest with a rally in front of the Fountain of Justice at Araneta Street, Bacolod City, yesterday afternoon.

Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board Regional Director Romulo Bernardes yesterday said that he will issue summons to operators of public transport who joined the two-day transport strike in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental.

Bernardes, who was in Bacolod to monitor the transport strike, said there are about ten operators from Bacolod and Negros Occidental who need to explain why they should not be meted appropriate penalties.

He emphasized that what the operators and their drivers did was a violation of the terms and conditions of their franchises because they abandoned their routes by joining the strike.

Eight men, including her boyfriend, allegedly gang-raped a teenager in Brgy. Taculing, Bacolod City, early morning Sunday, City Police Women and Children’s Complaints Desk chief, Insp. Jovy Cabcaban, said yesterday.

The victim, 18, whose name the police withheld, is now confined at the Bacolod Adventist Medical Center for injuries she sustained when she fought back.

Cabcaban said the victim’s boyfriend texted her at about 1 a.m. inviting her to come to his place, and when she arrived, she saw him having drinks with his friends.