| Home > South-East Asia >> Philippines | |
'No real freedom for the people on June 12'
Sanlakas Press Release - June 12, 2008
Transport groups hold metrowide protest actions vs oil price hikes
Transport groups led by the Alliance for Concerned Transport (ACT-Now!) and Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Transportasyon (PMT) protested this morning against skyrocketing oil prices through a transport action coordinated nationwide, while sections of the country are celebrating the 110th year of the declaration of Philippine independence.
The groups, in line with protest actions held by other transport groups from countries in Europe and Latin America on the same issue, said that the oil crisis is not only happening within poor nations – it is a global crisis.
Dante Lagman, convenor of PMT and co-convenor of ACT-Now!, said that if the government wants to sincerely address the global crisis on oil, it must implement measures that would immediately trickle down to the masses - like lifting the 12 percent Reformed Value Added Tax (RVAT) on all oil products. "It is quite ironic that despite this deepening crisis, the Macapagal-Arroyo administration still lacks even the slightest hint of political will to implement policies that will at least lift the people from the quicksand of poverty and crisis. With this, we cannot afford to celebrate with those who commemorate our 'freedom', for we are not truly free," Lagman said.
Meanwhile, Leody de Guzman, national president of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) - a member of ACT-Now!, said that fare increases would rather be an unfair formula to alleviate the worsening condition of transport groups.
"Fare increases are not the solution to this crisis. While it adds some earnings for the transport worker, it decreases the people's purchasing power and its effects would be detrimental to ordinary consumers who are now having an agonizing adjustment over rising prices of commodities," de Guzman said.
In the said protest actions, ACT-Now! and PMT led a transport caravan of almost a thousand trucks, tricycles, AUVs, Vans and Jeepneys from Pier to Malacaqang. PMT also held mini-caravans in the Quezon City Circle and Montalban, Rizal and established bus terminal choke points in Baclaran, SM Fairview, Novaliches Bayan, FTI, Malanday, Navotas and Baclaran.
PMT offers three solutions to address the oil crisis in the Philippine setting -lifting of the 12% R-VAT on oil, and petroleum products and the implementation of a moratorium on oil price increases, and the repeal of Republic Act 8479 or the Oil Deregulation Law, which hampers reasonable oil price control;
"Oil prices already increased 11 times since the beginning of the year - and worse, the increases will now follow a weekly trend. More and bigger protest actions are to be expected from us if immediate and viable solutions to the crisis are not implemented," Lagman concluded.
See also:
 |