Pamalakaya national chairman Fernando Hicap said the seemingly uncontrollable hikes in the prices of petroleum products has become an “across-the nation-nightmare” among small fishermen who use an average of 5-10 liters of regular gasoline everyday to enable them to sail and fish to rough seas within the municipal fishing waters.
“Mere reports that the prices of oil petroleum products could breach the $100 per barrel mark have become a terrible psychological thriller among our poor fishers,” Hicap said. “What more if prices of petroleum products, specifically regular gasoline reaches an average P50 ($1.22) per liter? We have a social volcano here that is ready to explode anytime,” Hicap said.
Based on a Pamalakaya study, the owners of some 177,627 motorized small fishing boats across the country who employ 2-3 small fishermen could no longer bear the brunt of rising prices of petroleum products, and such scenario may soon compel small boat owners either to reduce hours of fishing from an average of 8-12 hours to 4-8 hours or abandon their 4 to 16 horsepower motors, and go back to paddles because of high and unaffordable prices of petroleum products.
“That’s because they could no longer afford the cost of fuel, particularly regular gasoline now pegged at more than P40 ($0.98) per liter,” the group said. At present, there are 292,180 non-motorized boats out of 469,807 registered boats in all the country’s municipalities or 62 percent of all registered municipal boats all over the country.
Small Filipino fisherfolk use at least 5-10 liters of regular gasoline, costing them P200-450 ($4.90-11.03) per fishing operation based on current prices of petroleum products in the country. As per fishing operation, the normal average fish catch is 5-10 kilos at P40 ($0.98) per kilo of fish or roughly P200- 400 ($4.90-9.80) a day.
“The oil cartel is making money from our fisherfolk oil consumers, by making them slaves and perpetual buyers of their overpriced and highly taxed regular gasoline, courtesy of their cartelistic operations, the Oil Deregulation Law, and their patented practice of corporate exploitation,” the group said.
Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes, Jr. said prices of oil products went up as much as 18 percent for unleaded gasoline, 15 percent for diesel and 16 percent for LPG or an average 16-percent increase in retail price. He said that since the government imposed VAT in November 2005, prices of unleaded gasoline increased by 19 percent, diesel by 18 percent, and LPG by 32 percent.
Based on the study made by Bayan in cooperation with IBON Foundation, jeepney drivers all over the country were forced to hurdle additional P147.30 ($3.19 at last year’s average exchange rate of $1:P46.15) per day last year due to VAT on oil, while tricycle drivers spent P27.04 ($0.66) per day. Also last year, consumers of LPG spent an additional P76.94 ($1.89) for every 11 kilos of LPG due to VAT and rising prices of petroleum products.
Crisis or opportunity?
Meanwhile, Reyes described the scheduled government’s Philippine Energy Summit starting on Jan. 29 is nothing but a crisis to the Filipino people and an opportunity to transnational clients of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to further exploit the people and the country’s natural resources.
“The government seeks to make this a real super road show presentation to please giant corporations in the oil and energy sector,” the Bayan secretary-general said.
However, three militant leaders led by Anakpawis Rep. Beltran, Reyes and Confederation for the Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage) president Ferdinand Gaite, who were invited as speaker and reactor, respectively, will still attend the energy summit.
“They will attend not to provide moral and political premium to this bogus summit, but to advocate the people’s issues, analysis and alternatives,” Reyes said. “We will challenge them in their own turf and turn the tables around in the name of people’s collective interest.” Contributed to (Bulatlat.com)
