Bagong Alyansang Makabayan reiterates the demand for the suspension of VAT on oil, petroleum products, and electricity as an urgent measure to bring down prices amid the recent escalation of hostilities in West Asia triggered by the acts of aggression of the United States and Israel on Iran.
The continuing inaction of Ferdinand Marcos Jr exposes his duplicity when he claimed during his State of the Nation Address that his government is addressing the oil price shock and its harmful impacts on ordinary households.
Marcos Jr feigns concern over soaring prices even as he stubbornly rejected the suspension or scrapping of VAT and other regressive taxes. This showed that Marcos’ real priority is to ensure the collection of higher VAT revenues which benefits corrupt officials like him and his allies in Congress. He has also remained silent over the US-led war on Iran which has caused the continued disruption in the global oil supply and has caused wholesale destabilization in the region.
His proposal to amend the Electric Power Industry Reform Act is a sham. It does not address the fundamental defects of the law which transferred ownership and control of the energy industry to a handful of oligarchs, favored business cronies, and their foreign partners. Twenty five years is more than enough time to come to the undeniable conclusion that this law, following the privatization spree of government, has failed its promises and should be repealed. A new law must be enacted that re-establishes state ownership and regulation over this vital sector imbued with public interest.
The Marcos Jr government deceives the people by promising tax relief to workers while refusing to implement urgent measures that would directly lower the prices of oil and other basic goods.
The removal of VAT should be accompanied by meaningful wage hikes and the passage of a law providing a national living wage for workers.
A more fundamental and strategic approach is also needed to reverse neoliberal policies that enabled corporate control over public utilities. Bayan reiterates the call for the junking of the Oil Deregulation Law and EPIRA that burdened consumers with exorbitant rates and excessive charges.
Bayan enjoins the people to press for urgent economic relief, condemn the collusion of Marcos with oppressive cartels, and resist expanding US militarism.