Coop body exec bats for repeal of oil law, not transport strike

Pushing for the repeal of the oil deregulation law instead of a transport strike or the ouster of President Gloria Arroyo is the answer to the staggering increase of fuel prices, said a former transport group leader who was recently named to the Cooperative Development Authority.

"Bisan kinsa pa ang mahimong presidente nga molingkod diha sa Malacañang dili mapugngan ang pag-usab-usab sa presyo sa mga petroleum products kay anaa man kini sa Oil Deregulation law (Whoever is the president sitting in Malacañang cannot stop the changing prices of petroleum products because it's in the oil deregulation law)," said Benjamin Yu, now one of six CDA administrators.

Yu, a former chairman of the City Transport Services Cooperative that Arroyo appointed last August 25 to the CDA Board of Administrators, has strongly opposed the staging of a transport strike and the call of drivers for Arroyo to step down from office for alleged electoral fraud.

But he denied insinuations that the reason why Arroyo appointed him to the CDA Board was to exert influence in preventing Citrasco members from joining the strike slated this Monday.

Yu suggested instead that jeepney drivers lobby in Congress for the repeal of the oil deregulation law, which has been giving the oil industry players the exclusive discretion on fuel prices without the need for a public hearing.

Yu, also a retired military official, said the jeepney drivers should not put the commuters in a difficult situation by paralyzing transportation because this would not solve their problems. There were speculations that President Arroyo appointed Yu to the government post to discourage the jeepney drivers under Citrasco from staging transport strike, but the former Citrasco chairman said it was not the reason why he was appointed to the position.

The CDA is an agency directly under the Office of the President and has been tasked to supervise various cooperatives nationwide. Its administrators, each serving a six-year term without reappointment, are composed of two each from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao that are chosen from among nominees of the cooperative sector. - Rene U. Borromeo