KMU blames big oil companies’ superprofits and monopoly of the industry   

“The transport strike on Monday is not just our drivers’ strike, it is also a people’s strike.”

KMU Chairperson Elmer Labog announced that workers will participate in full force on Monday’s nation-wide transport strike. 

“All of us are disturbed by the incessant oil price hikes, so all of us are called on to actively partake and voice out our grievances.

“We should not pardon the drivers who will join the strike. They don’t bother us at all. What annoy us are Gloria and her colleagues in the big oil companies.” 

On the day of the transport strike, KMU will also hold factory walk-outs, noise barrage, and other forms of protest in various protest centers in Metro Manila and the rest of the country. 

Unstoppable

Labog also denounced LTFRB Chair Thompson Lantion for recent reports of him asking for the cancellation of the strike. 

“Until now, the Arroyo government has not yet done anything substantial to stop the never-ending oil price hikes. Who are they to stop the people’s strike? The people have suffered and have been enraged long enough, nothing can prevent them from pouring out on the streets,” Labog said. 

Profit and monopoly

Labog also tagged as the primary culprit the greedy control and opportunism of big foreign oil companies on the oil industry. 

“The oil cartel controls 90 percent of the oil production, supply, and distribution in the world. They can easily dictate the price of oil.” 

Labog also cited that the profit of the top four oil companies in the world amounted to a mammoth 98.8 billion dollars, and their profits rise consistently each year. 

“These big foreign oil companies are the only ones who benefit from every increase in the price of oil. And they now say that they cannot afford to grant a modest P125 wage hike?” 

Labog maintained that appropriate responses to the oil price hike are the removal of VAT on petroleum products, the repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law, the imposition of a moratorium on any increase in the price of oil, the nationalization of the oil industry, and the passage of the P125 legislated across-the-board wage hike.###