May 18, 2008

The League of Filipino Students expressed their dismay over the
government approval of the P.50 fare hike today, saying that while
they “understand” the plight of the jeepney drivers, the hike
“unjustly passes on to consumers the consequences of government
tolerance of the thievery of the big oil companies.”

“Why should the students and the general public be the ones to suffer?
The reason why the oil prices are ridiculously high is the
government’s deregulated policy which allows the overpricing of the
big oil companies. The government should scrap the oil deregulation
law immediately and should stop the oil price hikes,” said Vencer
Crisostomo, LFS national chairperson.

According to LFS, the increase will greatly affect the students and
might be reason for some not to enroll and drop out from school.
“Imagine, if you have 5 children going to school, you will now need
P80 daily just for transportation,” he explained.

Crisostomo called on leaders of jeepney associations to fight not only
for the drivers’ immediate economic relief, but to aim for long term
solutions as well and address the roots of the matter. “We support
and are one with PISTON because the group clearly articulate the roots
of the oil problem and is calling for the scrapping of the
deregulation policy. We call on other jeepney associations to not be
an instrument of government deceit and cover-up by endlessly calling
for fare hikes without identifying and fighting the real culprits: the
Arroyo government in connivance with the oil cartels,” he said.

The LFS said they will launch “sakay-talakay” campaigns and will
update and reproduce a primer they released a few months ago tackling
the rising oil prices and the government’s flawed policy. “Instead of
quarrels over ’sukli’, we should be discussing in jeepneys the real
roots of the rising prices and the need really, to get rid of this
rotten president once and for all,” said Crisostomo.

The LFS primer entitled “”Tanung-sagot hinggil sa walang habas na
pagtataas ng presyo ng langis” explains why the oil price increases
are unjust, saying the big companies have been overpricing their
products by as much as P4.55/liter since 2001. he primer explained
that this is done by “transfer pricing” schemes and “automatic
increases,” which, according to LFS, does not take into account the
reserves the oil companies have in relation to adjustments in world
crude prices.

The primer can be read and downloaded from the LFS website here:
http://www.lfs.ph/2007/12/01/tanong-sagot-hinggil-sa-oil-price-hike/