Piston to stage rally vs oil price hike

MANILA, Philippines - Militant public transport group Piston (Pinagkaissang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide) said yesterday that it will not hesitate to stage a nationwide protest next month if government will continue to ignore the unabated hike in oil prices.

George San Mateo, Piston national president and its first nominee as a party-list group, said that the oil companies were left to make upward adjustments of pump prices of unleaded gasoline and diesel, to the detriment of the public, while President Aquino is busy campaigning for the Liberal Party’s Team PNoy senatorial bets.

“Drivers are reeling from the financial burden of the weekly oil price hikes but the Aquino government still does not care. Worse, the government is coddling the oil companies when the trend of oil prices should be going down since import costs are going down because of the strengthening peso,” San Mateo said.

He said another price hike of about 80 centavos for gas and 50 centavos for diesel is looming this week.

Piston staged yesterday a protest rally along Aurora Boulevard in Quezon City to protest the rising price of fuel.

Last week, Piston also spearheaded a transport protest caravan from the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City to the head offices of Petron, Shell and Chevron/Caltex, to denounce the P1.20 oil price hike for both diesel and unleaded gasoline last week.