“We suspect that the Aquino government’s loan for the conversion of diesel-run jeepney engines into ones that run on LPG is the president’s bribe to transport leaders for not joining the transport strike last Sept. 19.”
This was the statement of labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno as it condemned Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III for bribing transport leaders and transport leaders for accepting the bribe, saying the Aquino government has resorted to corruption in an effort to stop the recent transport strike.
Condemnation
“People cannot help but think that the loan for the diesel-to-LPG conversion is the President’s bribe to transport leaders. If this is true, this certainly goes against the president’s ‘matuwid na daan (straight path)’ slogan and much-ballyhooed anti-corruption rhetoric,” Ustarez said.
“This is an illegal use of public funds to thwart a legitimate people’s protest. The president says ‘Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap (If there’s no corrupt, there’s no poor)’ yet what we see here is corruption being used to further impoverish people who are suffering from high and increasing prices of oil,” he added.
“We call on members of the said transport groups to abandon their bankrupt leaders. This is not the first time they have betrayed the transport sector and sucked up to the government for private gain,” he said.
Conversion costs
KMU said there is talk going around transport groups that each one will receive an amount equivalent to the conversion of 100 jeepney units. This means that each transport group will receive anywhere from P20 million to P30 million.
KMU identified the following transport leaders as having committed to the transport strike then backed out: Zenaida Maranan of Fejodap, Obet Martin of Pasang Masda, Efren de Luna of Acto, Orlando Marquez of LTop, and Boy Vargas of Altodap.
The labor center singled out Atty. Vigor Mendoza of 1-Utak as being the leader of the group. Mendoza was a lawyer of the Cojuangco- and Aquino-owned Hacienda Luisita Incorporated before he became a leader of a transport alliance.
Claims about onversion
The Aquino government and the transport leaders claim that the conversion, which will cost anything from P200,000 to P300,000 per unit, will help drivers who are suffering from the high and still-increasing cost of diesel.
“We seriously doubt whether converting engines to LPG will help our drivers. LPG is not exempted from the spiraling prices of petroleum products in the country’s deregulated oil industry. Let us recall that jeepney drivers were using gasoline before Marcos, who ordered a shift to diesel,” said Lito Ustarez, KMU vice-chairperson.
“As long as a few corporations monopolize the oil industry, and as long as the oil industry in the country remains deregulated, there’s no way transferring to LPG will help our drivers. Our drivers will just be transferring from the fire to the frying pan,” he added.
Chronology
KMU said the leaders of various transport groups united at first with militant transport group Piston (Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operators Nationwide) in launching the Sept. 19 transport strike but backed out after the Sept. 14 dialogue with the president in Malacañang.
In the said dialogue, Pres. Aquino did not make any concrete promise that would address the transport sector’s demands on the issue of oil prices and on exorbitant fines for violations of traffic rules. Still, the transport leaders backed out of the strike.
One day before the strike, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda announced that the president ordered the Department of Transportation and Communication to study a possible loan for the conversion of diesel-run engines to LPG-run ones. Lito Ustarez, KMU Vice Chairperson
