PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

Protests imperative to force rollback of oil prices -- CPP
August 5, 2004

The Communist Party of the Philippines called the recent successive and imminent more oil price increases "oppressive and unjust" and said that the Filipino people are "fully justified in carrying out mass protest actions to demand a rollback of oil prices and the scrapping of the oil industry deregulation law."

CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal asserted that it is imperative for the people to carry out mass protest actions to express their disgust at the oil companies' absence of any scruples in making the people shoulder a lot more for each and every little increase in world prices of crude oil.

"The unreasonable and unjust oil price hikes are hurting not only the most oppressed sectors but the middle classes as well," Rosal said. "The resistance cuts across broad sections of the people."

The CPP spokesperson added that these giant oil monopolies earn hundreds of billions of dollars by bleeding dry the Filipino people as well as other people "who really own the oil that these oil monopolies exploit and sell around the world."

Rosal said further that the oil monopolies will always grab any opportunity such as the slightest and most temporary increase in world oil prices to magnify their own price increases and make the most profit out of it.

"The original sin in the Philippine oil industry is that the deregulation law gave the foreign-owned oil monopolies all the freedom to exploit the situation and squeeze the people dry with every chance to hike oil prices."

Given the government's ever compliance to the oil monopolies greed for profits and whim to always incease oil prices, Rosal said that the only immediate recourse for the Filipino people is to keep launching vigorous massive protests actions to compel the oil monopolies to rollback oil prices and force the government to scrap the oil deregulation law.

Reference:
Anne Buenaventura
Media Officer
Cellphone Number: +63910-240-3553



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