Nationwide protests and transport strike successful

even before they were started today - KMU

THE labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) this morning declared the nationally-coordinated protests actions and nationwide transport strike as “successful’ before they were even started today.

KMU Chairperson Elmer ‘Ka Bong’ Labog said Department of Energy’s statement that another oil price hike is unlikely to happen until the end of December and LPG Marketers Association or LPGMA’s announcement yesterday of LPG prices to be rollback in the coming days, done at the eve of the nationwide protests and strike, are clear signs that the Arroyo government and other concerned parties had reacted positively to the demonstrators’ legitimate demands and sentiments.

KMU, PISTON, and other militant groups have demanded to the Arroyo government to impose a moratorium on oil price hikes, suspend the oil deregulation law and remove the 12 percent value-added tax on oil products.

“ We are again proven right that if a strong collective howl of protests and visible militant actions in the streets are displayed by the Filipinos, the Arroyo government is forced to listen and act. On the other hand, we should not let our guard down because our experience also teach us that when the government and oil companies feel that an atmosphere of protest is reduced significantly, a series of oil price hikes are again imposed immediately. We should therefore still push for our three major demands : the scrapping or repeal of the Oil Deregulation law, an immediate stop to oil price increases and the removal of the 12 percent value-added tax on oil products,” Labog said.

The labor leader also thanked the drivers, small operators and the public for its initial support to the nationwide protests and strike this morning.

“ We are elated that based on our monitoring this morning, considerable numbers of jeepney drivers have participated in the protests and strike. Contrary to what the officials of the Arroyo government had boasted earlier that the effects of the strike will be minimal and unlikely to be felt, even members of some transport groups which stated yesterday that they would not join us also have refused to ply their routes because the issues we raised are very legitimate. However, we are also expecting that at the end of the day, government officials with the help of their spin doctors in media will declare that the nationwide strike had fizzled out, particularly in Metro Manila, as they had done in the past, to discourage drivers to participate in such similar undertakings in the future,” Labog said.

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Press Statement
December 13, 2007
 

BAYAN MUNA SUPPORTS TRANSPORT STRIKE;

CRITICIZES GMA FOR LEAVING PEOPLE DEFENSELESS

 AGAINST OIL PRICE HIKES

We militant legislators of Bayan Muna fully support the calls and legitimate actions of drivers and operators who are calling for price controls in the oil industry and the repeal of the oil deregulation law.

We criticize the Arroyo administration for keeping the Filipino people defenseless against the continued oil price increases. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is letting the oil price shocks happening worldwide push more and more Filipinos into abject poverty.

The Arroyo regime only puts up a show of blaming monopoly oil companies and says it cannot stop oil prices from skyrocketing. This shows that Arroyo is beholden to the interests of the oil cartels and is not prepared to address the energy crisis we are facing.

Since the oil industry was deregulated by the Ramos government in April 1996, oil companies have hiked pump prices of all petroleum products by around 535%.

To add to the festering problem, oil companies and even Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo have already announced that fuel prices will still go up before Christmas, and there may be more hikes to come in 2008. The Palace refuses to do anything outside of ineffective measures such as an automatic tariff mechanism that does not stop the price hikes nor ensure fair price adjustments.

We are pushing for a the passage of 3 bills that shall give government the legal environment to loosen the tight grip of foreign monopoly oil companies on oil prices and to provide our public transport drivers, operators and the people a fighting chance versus incessant oil price hikes.

We call on consumers and various sectors of the public to support the passage of the following House Bills into law:

House Bill 3029 - An Act Regulating the Downstream Petroleum Industry and for Other Related Purposes;

House Bill 3030 - An Act Instituting Centralized Procurement of Petroleum in the Country; and

House Bill 3031 - An Act Renationalizing Petron Corporation.

HB 3029 will repeal the Oil Deregulation Law (RA 8479) that allows oil companies to automatically hike oil prices.

HBs 3030 and 3031 on the other hand, will mandate government to have centralized procurement of oil products from the cheapest sources available in the world and the re-acquisition of a majority government stake in Petron, respectively.

Filed on November 6, these 3 bills are bold and concrete steps to address the problematic oil industry squarely and regulate oil price increases in the country if immediately passed into law. These are tangible, long-term solutions that will mitigate the impact of skyrocketing oil prices.

If this government wants to address this major problem confronting the nation, it should immediately enact House Bills 3029, 3030 and 3031 into law. #
 

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■   Notice of strike -- Bikol Piston

■   Scrap oil deregulation law -- Migrante

■   Students support people's protest vs oil price hikes

■   Transport strike felt in Cagayan de Oro, Iligan cities

■   Strike succeeds in GenSan, fails in Koronadal - militants

■   Militant drivers claim 75% success in Davao

■   Iloilo transport strike vs oil price increases starts

Busted street lamp, busted Oil Deregulation Law:

But unlike the street lamp which illuminated the street in the past, the Oil Deregulation Law never gave any relief to the consumers in terms of cheaper oil products. It was already a busted law and bound to fail at the moment it was passed by Congress. Its proponents and lobbyists made sure of that.

Rallyists now serve the food needs of the street parliamentarians by offering snacks and meals at prices lower than those sold by  the street vendors.

Each item comes with a come-on adjective that describes the item, well, except, for the sandwich. Why so?

Masayang tanghalian (menudo and rice): What makes the tanghalian masaya?

We can think of 3 reasons:

1) you eat your lunch with fellow rallyists;

2) the lunch is relatively very affordable;

3) best of all, you are eating your affordable lunch in the streets with fellow rallyists because you all have a good and worthy cause to fight for and win.

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