Scrap Oil Deregulation Law — Transport Drivers
Transport Groups Call for Fare Hike Anew

“Whenever we go on strike, they always ask us, ‘What about the people who will be affected?’” Mar Garvida, a transport leader, says. “But are we not part of the people? Are our families not part of the people?”

By Alexander Martin Remollino 
Bulatlat.com

Transport groups led by the Pinag-isang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston or alliance of drivers and operators nationwide) are expected to hold a dialogue with the Land Transportation Franchise and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) on March 16. The dialogue would still be in pursuit of their demand for a P1 fare increase.

Piston-led transport drivers and operators went on strike last March 1 on such a demand, paralyzing some 90 percent of transportation throughout the country based on various media reports. The transport strikers held initial dialogues with the LTFRB a few days after the strike.

The March 16 dialogue will be the strikers’ second with the LTFRB. Pending the outcome of the dialogues, Piston and other transport groups have agreed to temporarily cancel plans for another nationwide strike. Prior to that, there was news of plans for a March 8 transport strike but the group that threatened to strike – Fejodap – fizzled out as expected.

October 2002 petition

The March 1 transport strike, according to Piston national president Mar Garvida, reiterated the demand contained in a petition dating as far back as October 2002. Before that, drivers had been authorized to charge P4 for the first five kilometers in 2000. From then to October 2002, there were nine oil price hikes but no fare hikes.

Thus on Oct. 17 that year Piston petitioned for a fare hike with the LTFRB. However, they received no response until last February, when they were told that the petition had no basis.

“But according to the LTFRB,” said Garvida in Filipino in a recent interview with Bulatlat.com, “there are three bases for fare hikes: increase in prices of spare parts, crude price hikes, and boundary fee increases. All of these factors are already there, but they wouldn’t grant us fare hikes.”

Since 2000, diesel prices have increased by almost P5, in effect eating up at least P135 of a driver’s average daily earnings based on computations by Bulatlat.com and the cause-oriented scientists’ group Agham.

To date, jeepney drivers earn an average of P160 a day or P395 below the daily cost-of-living allowance for the average Filipino family going by an October 2003 study by socio-economic think tank Ibon Foundation. Ibon based its computation on data from the government National Wages and Productivity Board.

“They always ask us, ‘What about the people who will be affected?’ whenever we go on strike,” Garvida says. “But are we not part of the people? Are our families not part of the people?”

Petroleum overprice

Garvida also notes that the government uses a double standard in its supposed concern for legal processes. While it is quick to denounce them for staging strikes, he says, it does not do the same with regards oil companies.

“When oil companies jack up their prices almost whimsically, is that in accordance with legal processes?” he asks. “Even if the oil industry is deregulated, there are safety nets that must be considered.”

Saying that drivers are forced to demand fare hikes and go on strike when these are not granted as a result of oil price increases, Garvida says that there is no basis for oil price increases. In a recent statement, Piston revealed that oil companies pocketed some P240 billion from January to May 2003 from overpricing.

Ibon Foundation also reports that oil companies overpriced their products by at least 91 centavos last year. According to the think tank, based on the rule of thumb for the downstream oil industry, a one-dollar change in Dubai oil prices should affect local oil prices by 26 centavos, while a one-dollar adjustment in the foreign exchange should affect domestic oil prices by 13 centavos.

Since there was a $2.4 movement in Dubai oil prices and a $1.9 adjustment in foreign exchange for 2003, there should have been only an 87-centavo increase in local oil prices last year. The actual price increases, however, amounted to P1.78.

Meanwhile, a March 7 report by the Cordillera-based Northern Dispatch Weekly reveals that the production cost per barrel of crude oil is equivalent to P84 (going by a $1=P56 exchange rate). It is sold in the world market for the equivalent of P1,624-1,680 per barrel, amounting to a profit of P1,540–1,596 per barrel.

Oil companies in the Philippines, Northern Dispatch Weekly adds, are able to sell some 380,000 barrels of oil a day. This is equivalent to a profit of P585.2 million-606.48 million a day.

Says Garvida: “The price of petroleum products is very crucial because people are dependent on that for their livelihood—from foot to head.” He also says that Piston is pushing for the repeal of the oil deregulation law. Bulatlat.com

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