P1 peso rebate: A PARTIAL victory by NTU for the Public Transportworkers

The National Transportworkers Union (NTU), representing about 120,000 members nationwide held yesterday a dialogue with the Land Transportation and Franchising Board, Department of Transportation and Communication, the Department of Energy, and the Shell oil company to demand for a rebate on oil prices for public utility vehicles.

We would like to announce that the NTU was able to push the government and the Shell Company to give a P1 decrease or rebate in the selling price of diesel and gasoline nationwide. This would be a big relief on the public transport drivers and operators nationwide that have been longing for a fare increase.

The grant for a rebate was the result of a series of dialogues with the government that initially gave a measly P0.30 discount on the price of diesel and gasoline outside MetroManila just a few weeks ago. The NTU asserted the demand for a much bigger rebate that would be implemented nationwide since in the National Capital Region oil companies are giving P2.10 discounts.

While supportive of the recent strike for a fare hike, the NTU-Alliance of Progressive Labor (NTU-APL) believe that it should be the last option since the riding public would be gravely affected by it. The fare hike is certainly an additional burden to the riding public especially to the workers and their children who have to look for other ways to augment the deficit it would create in their daily keep.

We would like to clarify that the real problem is the oil deregulation program of the government. It allows the oil companies to change the prices of oil without the benefit of public hearings thus negating the interest of the consumers. The oil companies are free to determine on how much would be the amount it will increase or decrease in the oil price and the date on when to implement it. The public are prevented from knowing on how the oil companies compute the exact rate or amount of the new price of diesel and gasoline.

Without public hearings, oil companies increase at whim the prices of crude at staggering rates while very slow and deliberate in lowering it down. And because there are no public hearings, the public do not know if we are being short-changed by the oil companies when they lower it down. The government has failed miserably to protect the consumers by instituting safeguard mechanisms in situations when oil price hikes are inevitable.

The transport strike serves as a wake up call for the government to look into the problem of our oil industry because oil deregulation does not really work. We will give the government one week to see if they would comply to our agreement for a rebate and if not, we will not hesitate to hold strikes nationwide.

The NTU and the APL will continue to fight for the interest not only of the workers in the public transport utility service but also of the riding public in general. We call on the people to be vigilant and continue to strive for what is just for the good of the country.