As the PISTON-led transport strike enters its second day, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan condemns the Marcos administration for its utter failure to respond to the legitimate demands of the transport sector to lower fuel prices by removing or reducing taxes on oil and petroleum products, reducing the huge profits of the oil monopolies, repealing the Oil Deregulation Law, and adding its voice to demands to end the US-Israel war on Iran.
The Marcos government’s response to the strike—a measly P1 fare hike and a rice-distribution photo op by the First Lady—is insulting, to say the least.
There are actually concrete measures that the government can take to immediately bring down fuel prices. The Department of Energy itself has certified that Dubai crude exceeded the $80-per-barrel threshold that allows the government to reduce or suspend fuel excise taxes. Yet motorists and transport workers continue to bear the full weight of taxes on already exorbitantly priced fuel.
Worse is the continued imposition of a 12% value-added tax that gives the government windfall revenues whenever prices skyrocket. It is unconscionable for the government to be raking in record-high VAT collections at the expense of our suffering people.
The government must also prohibit oil companies from automatically passing on international price movements and other costs to consumers. It should closely scrutinize pricing, margins, and profits and impose effective regulation in the public interest. The continuing fuel crisis underscores the need to repeal the Oil Deregulation Law and restore the State’s capacity to regulate and intervene in the oil industry.
The Marcos administration must likewise acknowledge that today’s fuel crisis is a direct effect of the US-Israel war on Iran. Instead of aligning with Washington’s wars and geopolitical agenda, the Philippine government should call for an end to the war and the restoration of stable oil supplies and trade. Filipino drivers, workers, and consumers should not be made to pay for a war they did not start and do not benefit from.
BAYAN stands in solidarity with PISTON and other transport workers participating in the strike. Their struggle goes beyond the livelihood of drivers and operators. The people unite with them in demanding that the government cut fuel taxes, regulate pricing and profits, repeal the Oil Deregulation Law, and work for an end to the US-Israel war on Iran.
The transport sector and the general public have carried the burden long enough. The Marcos administration must act.