Philippine transport strikers say Marcos Jr failing to control oil prices

Manila – Despite driving his jeepney through some of Metro Manila’s busiest neighbourhoods on a daily basis, Arturo Modelo, 52, only takes home about a third of the 600 Philippine pesos ($10) he would normally earn, as the cost of fuel has soared in the Philippines and his profits have diminished as a result.

“I can’t even afford my kid’s lunch money,” he told Al Jazeera.

Leaning on his jeepney, Modelo explained how he joined two days of transport strikes in Manila on Thursday and Friday because he wanted “a deaf government to listen”.

Besides, he added, “you can’t really make a living on the road these days.”

The iconic jeepney, which emerged at the end of World War II when Filipinos repurposed old United States military jeeps to use as minibuses, is the cheapest and most common form of commuter transport in the Philippines.

Last week, jeepney owners staged a strike, which was followed by bigger demonstrations this week, as workers – from bus, taxi and minibus drivers to motorcycle taxi riders – representing nearly a dozen national transport groups joined the stoppage to protest rising fuel costs amid what they see as government inaction.

Thousands marched to the Presidential Palace on Friday, demanding price controls on petrol and diesel, scrapping fuel taxes, and tighter government regulation of the fuel industry.

The workers, who came together on Thursday and Friday under the No to Oil Price Hike Coalition, believe the government was too slow to act and had, for weeks, ignored their demands for price controls.

The No to Oil Price Hike Coalition also called out what it said was “American aggression” against Iran for the economic woes being felt in the Philippines.

“Filipinos didn’t start this war, don’t want any part of it, but are suffering because of it,” said Jerome Adonis, chairperson of the national workers’ group Kilusang Mayo Uno (May First Movement), who joined the strike.

“It’s like the United States also dropped a bomb on us,” Adonis said.

State of energy emergency

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr declared a state of national energy emergency on Tuesday night, a first as the US-Israel war on Iran entered its fourth week.

The emergency declaration will remain in force for one year, and allows the government to more rapidly procure fuel and petroleum products and to take action against the hoarding, profiteering and manipulation of petroleum product supplies.

Marcos said he ordered the “implementation of the fuel and energy allocation plan and other energy conservation measures” as a means to tackle the price surge and promised the country would have “a flow of oil”.

The Philippines has been hit harder than its neighbours by price shocks since the US and Israel attacked Iran last month. It has among the highest diesel and petrol prices in Southeast Asia, slightly behind Singapore – a country with higher wages and a far higher standard of living – as the global oil shortage bites.

Singapore diesel, according to various reports, was about $2.7 per litre this week, while diesel in the Philippines went up to $2.3 per litre. Petrol was about $2.35 per litre in Singapore, while in the Philippines it was nearly $2 per litre. In contrast, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand have recorded prices at about half of that at the fuel pumps.

As transport costs rise, students and workers in some cities in the country have been given free access to bus rides, and the government has started to provide a 5,000 peso ($83) subsidy to motorcycle taxi drivers and other public transport workers.

But for many, strike action is the only platform to express their concerns.

Transport union leaders said thousands had joined picket lines at 85 commuter terminals across the capital and major cities, while very few jeepneys could be seen on typically congested streets during the strike on Friday.

Authorities, however, said the two days of industrial action failed to paralyse Metro Manila, criticising the strike’s organisers and participants for inconveniencing commuters.

Asked on Friday if the government was considering directly subsidising fuel costs, similar to some countries in Southeast Asia, presidential spokesperson Claire Castro said the administration would study such a proposal.

Castro said the government had already doled out 2.5 billion pesos ($414m) in fuel subsidies this week to nearly 300,000 transport workers. However, advocacy groups say some 2 million people are likely working in the sector.

But transport workers also reported extremely long queues or missing out on the 5,000-peso payment due to their work details being absent from official government databases.

Jeepney driver Modelo, who spoke to Al Jazeera, said nobody from the transport terminal where he worked in Manila had received any government assistance.

‘Half the population is poor’

Mody Floranda, national president of the transport workers group Piston, which initiated some of the strike action, said President Marcos Jr was favouring oil companies over Filipinos.

“Right now, Marcos can release an executive order for a price cap. He says it’s an emergency but acts like it isn’t,” said Floranda.

Presidential spokesperson Castro told reporters that the government’s swiftest action was “talking to manufacturing companies and other stakeholders not to increase the prices of goods”.

In a radio interview, Department of Energy (DOE) chief Sharon Garin said the agency aimed to please all stakeholders and that price caps imposed on fuel firms required the “right formula” to avoid harming businesses.

Experts attribute the high prices in the Philippines to the country’s dependence on oil imports and a deregulated market, plus excise taxes and a high value-added tax (VAT) of 12 percent.

Industrial economics Professor Krista Yu at De La Salle University in Manila said the dire situation was also due to the country’s “very limited domestic production and refining capacity”.

Yu said the government should prioritise securing “physical supply and reducing exposure to external shocks”.

According to the Energy Department, about 98 percent of the domestic crude oil supply is imported in the Philippines.

Emmanuel Leyco, chief economist at Credit Rating and Investors Services Philippines and the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), said that while the president is concerned about supply, “the public is already feeling the pain caused by unreasonable runaway prices.”

Leyco blamed the Oil Industry Deregulation Law of 1998 for the current situation, as it leaves fuel price adjustments in the hands of industry players.

“It is the main culprit. Even slight price adjustments cause serious problems because half the population is poor,” Leyco told Al Jazeera.

Faced with the likelihood of more strikes and growing public dissatisfaction, Marcos Jr separately signed a law on Wednesday allowing him to temporarily suspend excise taxes on fuel when crude oil exceeds a certain price per barrel for a month.

“Why not include the VAT and remove it with the excise taxes permanently?” asked opposition Kabataan Partylist lawmaker Renee Co.

“Both forms of taxation are regressive because they place the weight of commodity expenses on the people,” Co told Al Jazeera.

Co, along with other opposition lawmakers in Congress, had previously filed a bill to cancel both taxes, and on Wednesday filed a separate bill for state regulation of the oil industry.

Co was also among 50 members of Congress who passed a resolution calling for the “immediate cessation of hostilities in Iran, particularly an end to the military aggression instigated by the United States of America and Israel, in order to prevent further loss of life and humanitarian suffering”.