MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 6, 2011) – Congresswoman Emmi de Jesus on Tuesday lambasted oil firms for their new rounds of price hike in the country, saying it will be an added burden to the Filipinos who are already suffering from the high cost of basic commodities in the country.
“The cartel-like simultaneous price hikes of gasoline and kerosene by Pilipinas Shell, Petroleum Corp. and Chevron Philippines is definitely not a welcome Christmas gift as far as our poor women and their families are concerned,” De Jesus said.
Oil firms raised their pump prices to as much as P0.80 per liter for unleaded gasoline and P0.85 per liter for regular gasoline.
“In the face of ongoing political bickering, the continuously deteriorating economic situation faced by more than three quarters of the Filipino population seems to be in the least priority of the Aquino administration.”
“The Aquino administration failed to act on the increasing demands from our workers for an across-the-board nationwide wage hike, and instead offered emergency COLA of P22 per day. It failed to control runaway increases in the prices of oil and petroleum products as well as those of basic commodities and prime necessities,” she said.
COLA refers to the coast of living allowance of workers.
“We know very well that such unchecked increases in prices of goods and products hurt poor families the most, yet it seems that the current administration remains unsympathetic to their plight,” De Jesus, who belongs to the Gabriela Women’s Party, said.
“Gabriela Women’s Party, for its part, filed House Bill 4704 seeking to exempt basic necessities, prime commodities, and oil and petroleum products from the imposition of the value-added tax. The least the Aquino administration can do is to call on its allies in Congress to push for the early approval of this bill. Surely, our poor women and their families will welcome this as perhaps the best Christmas gift the government can offer,” she said.
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