ANTIPOLO City, March 15, 2012—Urban poor group, Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) urged motorists to give at least 5 minutes of their time to “block” EDSA [Epifanio de los Santos Avenue] to protest the unabated oil price increase.
In a statement, Kadamay secretary-general Gloria Arellano, said it is very obvious that Malacañang and the big oil companies Shell, Petron and Caltex are in “connivance” in terms of oil overpricing. The pump prices in the Philippines had increased eight times due to the tension happening in Iran.
"We only ask for five minutes of their trip to register our strongest opposition to the seeming collusion between Malacanang and the oil cartel at the expense of the majority of the Filipinos. And, it would need our united effort to bring the Aquino administration to its knees for its subservience to the oil cartel,” the urban poor leader said.
For the poor, Arellano explains, every centavo counts and the unabated oil price increases make the lives of the urban poor from worse to worst as food prices and transport fare also go up whenever there is an increase in the cost of petroleum.
"While the government continues to protect the oil cartel and does nothing against its profiteering scheme, Aquino has no right to absolve himself of the soaring number of Filipinos who go hungry or consider themselves poor," Arellano said.
Meanwhile, Kadamay said that the Filipinos should do a “Nigerian-type” of war against the oil price hike, as the Nigerian people had forced their government to bring back oil subsidy after a massive of protests launched that lasted for weeks.
She also said that President Benigno C. Aquino III’s “puppetry” to oil companies must come to an end and force him to act on people’s issues, not only on oil, but also on the problems of burgeoning unemployment, devaluating workers’ wages, and soaring food prices.
“We have no choice but to act now,” Arellano said. [Noel Sales Barcelona/CBCPNews]
