Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston, or Unity of Drivers’ and Operators’ Associations Nationwide) called for sustained protests leading up to a strike against the Marcos regime’s incompetence in addressing the crisis brought about by rising oil prices.

“Enough is enough, we need to go on strike now!” the drivers shouted. “All Marcos is doing is beg Petron, Shell, and Caltex for a staggered increase. They force us to economize and conserve, while Marcos and his government continue to wantonly squander public funds.”

To start, drivers, workers, urban poor residents, and others launched “back-to-back” protests on the first day of the “staggered” oil price hikes on petroleum products last March 10.

Instead of merely requesting oil companies to slow down the increases, the VAT and excise tax on oil must be removed to decisively bring prices down, the group said.

“Removing only the excise tax is not enough. VAT is the bigger burden, because as a percentage tax, oil price hikes also increases the government’s collection,” Piston president Mody Floranda said.

The group estimates that at least ₱15 in taxes is imposed over every liter of diesel that drivers buy (₱6 in excise tax and ₱9 in VAT). For daily jeep consumption of 30 liters, the state takes away ₱450 in income that should have gone to drivers and operators. This robs them of a hefty ₱13,950 monthly, more than enough basis for jeepney drivers and operators to demand a fare increase.

The last provisional ₱1 fare increase was implemented in 2023. Floranda said that gasoline prices have gone up by ₱33.60/liter and diesel by ₱37.50/liter since then. On top of this is the ₱13/liter increase in gasoline and ₱23/liter in diesel as an initial price hike because of the US and Israel aggression in Iraq. Computed from 2023, the total increase in oil prices has reached ₱60.50/liter.

“The huge impact will force many drivers to stop plying their routes altogether,” Floranda said.

Living wages

Meanwhile, workers are demanding a living wage amid the surge in oil and commodity prices.

“The wages of workers must immediately be raised to a living level – ₱1200 nationwide so they can cope with the soaring prices of basic goods,” Kilusang Mayo Uno said.

The excessive rise in oil prices is a major blow to workers’ lives and that of their families, whose extremely low wages are already driving them into hunger and poverty. Their situation is even worsened by the proposed 4-day work week in the private and public sectors, as this will surely further cut their income amid the crisis.

“The demand of workers and the people to remove the 12% Value Added Tax and excise tax on oil…is becoming more justified now more than ever,” KMU said. With this, they are also calling for the junking of the Oil Deregulation Law, which has unleashed oil companies to arbitrarily jack up their prices.