KARAPATAN decried Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Executive Order 110 declaring an “energy emergency” as an “inutile measure” that will not bring relief to Filipinos hit hard by the economic crisis spawned by US imperialist aggression in West Asia.
Marcos Jr.’s latest executive order, said KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay, is nothing but PR gimmickry and is inutile in resolving the energy crisis. He has turned a deaf ear to the people’s demands that would address the crux of the problem—the repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law and the removal of excise taxes and the Value Added Tax (VAT) on oil products.
There is nothing in the EO, added Palabay, about removing both the excise taxes and the VAT on oil to bring down prices significantly. Marcos Jr. made much about so-called emergency powers that would enable him to suspend these taxes, but he has been loathe to use them, claiming that the situation still does not warrant it.
“Yet,” said Palabay, “the steep oil price hikes in the past days have already resulted in a significant reduction in public transport vehicles plying their routes. The transport crisis is right before our eyes, but all Marcos Jr. has done is to take short-term measures like free rides, provide fare discounts limited to state-run trains and give out one-time fuel subsidies.”
The impact of the conflict in West Asia will also soon manifest in higher electricity rates due to the looming shortage of liquefied natural gas (LNG), the fuel used in power generation. Spiralling costs of LNG, which is also used as feedstock for fertilizer production and to fuel feedmills, will likewise lead to spikes in the prices of rice, chicken and pork. Rice prices, in particular, are expected to go up by almost 50%.
Given these realities, transport groups have slammed the ₱5,000 fuel subsidy for jeepney and tricycle drivers and ₱10,000 fuel subsidy for every bus unit as sorely inadequate to provide real relief. At best, said Palabay, they can defray expenses for two days.
The subsidies are reportedly part of ₱230 billion sourced from the current and last year’s budget as well as the Malampaya fund. “This allotment is small, considering the gravity of the crisis and the sheer number of people affected,” said Palabay. “This is also a drop in the bucket compared to the trillions that have been lost to corruption and wasted in unproductive, graft-ridden items like the Confidential and Intelligence Funds.”
“Yet, in the midst of the crisis, Marcos Jr. has the gall to allot as much as ₱17 billion to host the upcoming ASEAN summit where his master Donald Trump, the author of the current energy crisis, is expected.”
KARAPATAN denounces the Marcos Jr. regime’s lopsided priorities and its inutile PR stunts that do nothing to alleviate the people’s suffering amid this crisis. It fully supports the ongoing transport strike that is intended to dramatize the people’s demands for more long-term solutions to the crisis—those that will redound to the elimination of onerous taxes that merely drive up the prices of oil and other goods and services, and the adoption of laws and policies that would lead to greater national control over the supply and price of oil products.
