Successive oil price hikes reveal Noynoy, ‘Big 3’ as ‘sipsips’ – Anakbayan

Youth group Anakbayan today slammed the latest oil price hike as proof that the Aquino administration and the ‘Big 3’ oil cartel for conniving to maintain local petroleum prices overpriced.

 

Oil firms hiked their pump prices on midnight of Tuesday, the third already this month, by P1.00 per liter for diesel, P0.75 for kerosene, and P0.50 for gasoline. The previous increases this month amount to P1.25 per liter for both diesel and gasoline.

 

“Baka mamatay nalang sa blood loss ang kabataan at manggagawa sa kakasipsip ng mga lintang kumpanya ng langis (Youths and workers might simply die of ‘blood loss’ because of the leeching of oil companies)” said Anakbayan spokesperson Vencer Crisostomo.

 

Students, workers, and young professionals are complaining about the recently-implemented taxi fare hike, and the pending petitions for jeep and bus fare hikes, all of which cite the spate of increases in pump prices as the main reason. Additionally, MRT-LRT fares are set to soar by around 100% on March 1.

 

“Pero ang pinaka-malaking sipsip ay walang iba kundi si Noynoy, sa kanyang pag-sipsip sa kartel ng langis (But the biggest sycophant is Noynoy with his kowtowing to the oil cartel)” the youth leader.

 

He criticized claims by the government that they were ‘powerless’ to control pump prices as ‘blatantly false’.

 

“For one, they should start looking at charges that local petroleum products are overpriced” he said.

 

Crisostomo cited the previous study by the umbrella group Bayan (Bagong Alyansang Makabayan) which showed that local pump prices were overpriced by around P6.72 per liter at the close of 2010.

 

He said “For another, this should also serve as a very appropriate time for discussing the return of regulation in the downstream oil industry, and the junking of the Oil Deregulation Law”.

 

“If there’s a will, there’s a way. But obviously, the biggest sipsip in Malacañang is unwilling to confront the issue” he concluded.