Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Fishers stage protest at Petron
PARTY-LIST group San-lakas yesterday led fisherfolk on board five motorized bancas to a protest-rally at the Petron oil depot in Mandaue City to dramatize their demand for the government to take over the multi-national oil company.
Sanlakas spokesman Aaron Pedrosa said Petron and the two other multi-national oil companies are creating a cartel that sabotages the Philippine economy. He said this was why the government should take over Petron.
Pedrosa said fisherfolk are affected by the steep increase in oil prices because their bancas use gasoline, which now costs P64 per liter. Each fisherman, he said, uses three to four liters of gasoline every day and they get a yield of only only four kilos of fish.
Fluvial
In yesterday’s “fluvial protest,” fisherfolk docked their bancas at the old Mactan-Mandaue Bridge and from there, they marched to the Petrol oil depot.
They were blocked at Petron’s main gate.
Amist the skyrocketing prices of petroleum, Pedrosa said Sanlakas reiterated its position to remove the 12 percent Expanded Value Added Tax (Evat) on oil and scrapping of the Oil Deregulation Law.
“We chose Petron for the protest action to highlight our call for government takeover of this oil company. It is a good starting point to dismantle the ruling oil cartel”, Pedrosa said.
Bayan-Central Visayas, on the other hand, launched a signature campaign against oil price hikes, the 12 percent VAT on oil and the Oil Deregulation Law in front of the Department of Energy (DOE) Visayas Office on Osmeña, Blvd., Cebu City.
Bayan-Central Visayas Chairman Jaime Paglinawan said it is very clear that multi-national oil companies such as Petron, Caltex and Shell are sabotaging the economy. He said the Oil Deregulation Law must be abolished so that they cannot increase fuel prices without a public hearing.
Paglinawan said the signature campaign, which aims to gather 100,000 signatures, will be a continuing activity until the State of the Nation Address of President Arroyo.
He said that once the 100,000 signatures are gathered, they will submit these to the progressive party-list groups in Congress and to the eight congressmen in Cebu to support the general call to repeal the Oil Deregulation Law and remove the 12 percent Evat on fuel.
Paglinawan said the pending bills in Congress in relation to the oil crisis are HB 3442 (removal of Evat on oil), HB 1724 (repeal of Oil Deregulation Law), HB 3029 (regulate the downstream oil industry), HB 1126 (to include LPG and diesel in the Price Control Law), HB 3031 (to take over Petron and transfer it to 100 percent government ownership) and HB 3030 (mandating a centralized procurement of oil). (EOB)
