PRIESTS, NUNS, AND DRIVERS: A priest from the Inter-Faith
Movement for Truth, Justice and Genuine Change (IFM, right
photo) joins transport strike as striking drivers (left photo)
unfold streamer at Welcome Rotunda, Manila, Sept. 12.
Photos by
Risa Jopson
The leader of a nationwide transport group hit President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
for saying early last week that the Philippines is one of the countries
with the lowest oil price increases thus far.
World oil prices reached historic highs late last month, with
Dubai crude oil prices shooting up to $55 per barrel and New York crude
prices jumping to $69 per barrel. Oil companies in the Philippines,
particularly the so-called Big Three – Shell, Caltex and Petron – have
reacted to this by implementing almost-weekly increases of P0.50 ($0.009
based on a $1:P56.17 exchange rate as of Sept. 16) for every liter in the
prices of their products.
“We can say we are among the 26 countries with the smallest price
increases in gasoline,” Arroyo said during a televised roundtable
discussion with Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla, National Power
Corporation (Napocor) president Cyril del Callar and Meralco president
Jesus Francisco last week.
But Mar Garvida, president of the Pinag-isang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at
Opereytor Nationwide (Piston or united nationwide association of drivers
and operators), said Arroyo knows nothing except to justify oil price
increases.
Interviewed by Bulatlat, Garvida said “It may be true that we are among
the countries with the lowest price increases so far,” he added, “but what
is the cost of living in the
Philippines? Do workers have high wages?”
On the national level, a family of six – the average Filipino family – now
needs a total of P598.60 to survive daily, based on July data from the
government’s National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC).
Conversely, the national average daily minimum wage amounts to only
P204.74, which is P393.86 short of the national average living wage for a
family of six.
Nationwide transport strike
Garvida’s group led a nationwide transport strike Sept. 12 to protest
against oil price increases and the implementation of the expanded
value-added tax (EVAT) law. Another nationwide transport group, the
Philippine Confederation of Drivers and Operators – Alliance of Concerned
Transport Organizations (PCDO-ACTO), joined Piston in the protest action.
Modesto Floranda, Piston vice-president for the National Capital Region
(NCR), said that as much as 95 percent of public transport was paralyzed
in Metro Manila. NCR police, meanwhile, estimated the extent of transport
paralysis in Metro Manila at 50 percent.
In the provinces, Piston reported 100-percent paralysis of public
transport in
Angeles
City, Pampanga; Taytay-Angono in Rizal,
Baguio
City, Cebu, Sorsogon, and
North Cotabato.
In
Central Luzon,
public transport was paralyzed by 90 percent in the rest of Pampanga, 90
percent in Pangasinan, 90 percent in Bulacan, and 90 percent in Tarlac.
There was 90-98 percent paralysis in several towns in Bulacan.
In the Visayas, the strike crippled transport in
Panay island by 70 percent,
Iloilo
City by 90 percent, and Negros Occidental by 90 percent. Meanwhile, in
Mindanao there was 85 percent paralysis in Cagayan de Oro City, 98 percent
in Davao City, 90 percent in Polomolok, South Cotabato, 90 percent in
Panabo, 90 percent in Tagum-Compostela Valley, 95 percent in Iligan City,
90 percent in Gingoog City, 95 percent in General Santos City, 95 percent
in Digos, Davao del Sur, and 85 percent in Malaybalay, Bukidnon.
In these areas, companies and schools either closed for the day or sent
their employees and students home early.
In the Bicol region, bus and tricycle drivers also went on strike in
support of Piston’s action.
The strike by Piston also demanded the scrapping of the oil deregulation
law and the nationalization of the oil industry.
Garvida also said that the introduction of E-10 ethanol-blended gasoline
in the
Philippines by Seaoil and Eastern Petroleum as an alternative fuel would
have been a welcome development if the country had control of the
technology for it. A mixture of 90 percent gasoline and 10 percent
ethanol, E-10 is described by Seaoil president Glenn Yu as more economical
than ordinary fuel.
“The problem is, the control of that technology still lies in the hands of
big business,” Garvida said. “Only the companies selling that product
would benefit from it.”
Giovanni Tapang, who chairs Agham (association of science and technology
advocates for the people), spoke on possible alternatives to oil during
the transport strike. “With a little more processing, virgin coconut oil
and even gin can be used as fuel,” he said. “But for so long as we have no
basic industries, that will remain a dream.” Bulatlat
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