KMU cautions public amid rollbacks: oil should at least be P11 lower accdgto world market trend

This was the critique of Kilusang Mayo Uno Secretary General Wilson Baldonaza on the measly oil price cuts in a press conference with other leaders of basic sectors today. Based on the same world market price alone, current diesel pump price should already be P11 lower (see table).

“The oil cartel has already blinded us on the proper costing of their products as they control the exploration, refinery, and distribution of oil in the world, free to dictate any price that would suit their greed. But the world market fluctuations, which they have blamed for their gigantic price spikes, would now blatantly point out that they are not complying with the proper pricing.”

Baldonaza also revealed that Petron, Shell, and Caltex in the Philippines had a total combined reported profit of P31 billion for last year. “Given the superprofits, the oil companies collect more than P244 million a day from the said overprice based on diesel use of jeepneys, tricycles, and small fisherboats only,” he said (see table).

“The Arroyo regime, meanwhile, connives with the oil empires to secure corruptible funds from the VAT.” (see table)

Baldonaza added that “Amid a setting of worsening economic hardships, the people suffer from frozen wages and job insecurity. Recently, more than 700 workers from various unions under KMU alone were terminated due to asserting for their legitimate wage hikes and other rights.”

In the presscon, the sectoral representatives smacked with a sledge hammer an effigy of Arroyo’s head, with a body dressed with labels of skewed economic policies, such as ‘oil deregulation’, ‘VAT’, and ‘wage freeze.’

On September 22, protest demonstrations will be staged in different parts of the country to call for the scrapping of these policies.