Hikes on oil prices, SLEX toll rate double whammy for the poor – KMU

“Filipinos are doubly burdened with unabated hikes in oil prices and with the looming 300 percent toll fee hike in the South Luzon Expressway or SLEX, even as capitalists stand to doubly reap from these schemes,” Kilusang Mayo Unos said as oil firms raised pump prices today.

“These schemes are among the last-minute whips unleashed by Arroyo on the poor, who have suffered too much under her nine-year rule,” KMU chairperson Elmer “Bong” Labog said.

With the P1.98 to P5.92 per kilometer added charge to be imposed in SLEX starting June 30, the tollway operator and the government can earn – and pocket – as much as P2.37 million everyday. This assumes that 200,000 vehicles pass through SLEX every day. This is more than twice the usual daily earnings of P906,000 from SLEX.

Meanwhile, for every P1 added to gasoline prices, around P22.22 million will be added to daily profits of oil companies. They will extract this from 427,000 jeepneys, 582,000 tricycles and 708,000 fishboats operating daily.

“All these huge sums collected from ordinary Filipinos will only go to big oil companies and to the pockets of government officials,” Labog said.

KMU said the people cannot wait to hear President-elect Noynoy Aquino’s take on price hikes, adding however that big businesses bankrolled Aquino’s presidential campaign.

“It’s a challenge for Aquino to stop the gush of price hikes in oil products and toll rate hounding poor Filipinos. He should speak on these evils now and prove that he is not beholden to any corporate interest,” Labog said.