Nationwide protests and transport strike successful even before they were started today - KMU

THE labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) this morning declared the nationally-coordinated protests actions and nationwide transport strike as “successful’ before they were even started today.

KMU Chairperson Elmer ‘Ka Bong’ Labog said Department of Energy’s statement that another oil price hike is unlikely to happen until the end of December and LPG Marketers Association or LPGMA’s announcement yesterday of LPG prices to be rollback in the coming days, done at the eve of the nationwide protests and strike, are clear signs that the Arroyo government and other concerned parties had reacted positively to the demonstrators’ legitimate demands and sentiments.

KMU, PISTON, and other militant groups have demanded to the Arroyo government to impose a moratorium on oil price hikes, suspend the oil deregulation law and remove the 12 percent value-added tax on oil products.

“ We are again proven right that if a strong collective howl of protests and visible militant actions in the streets are displayed by the Filipinos, the Arroyo government is forced to listen and act. On the other hand, we should not let our guard down because our experience also teach us that when the government and oil companies feel that an atmosphere of protest is reduced significantly, a series of oil price hikes are again imposed immediately. We should therefore still push for our three major demands : the scrapping or repeal of the Oil Deregulation law, an immediate stop to oil price increases and the removal of the 12 percent value-added tax on oil products,” Labog said.

The labor leader also thanked the drivers, small operators and the public for its initial support to the nationwide protests and strike this morning.

“ We are elated that based on our monitoring this morning, considerable numbers of jeepney drivers have participated in the protests and strike. Contrary to what the officials of the Arroyo government had boasted earlier that the effects of the strike will be minimal and unlikely to be felt, even members of some transport groups which stated yesterday that they would not join us also have refused to ply their routes because the issues we raised are very legitimate. However, we are also expecting that at the end of the day, government officials with the help of their spin doctors in media will declare that the nationwide strike had fizzled out, particularly in Metro Manila, as they had done in the past, to discourage drivers to participate in such similar undertakings in the future,” Labog said.