Anakpawis party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao said Duterte has been “neglectful” over the overall increase in fuel prices since August, apparently without any plan to repeal the Oil Deregulation Law.
“President Duterte is effectively making the rich oligarchs in the oil monopoly ecstatic with his obvious inattention as his neo-liberal government has no plan of repealing the Oil Deregulation Law,” Casilao said in a statement.
He noted that while there have been instances since August wherein the prices of gasoline and diesel were lowered, the net effect was still an upsurge in fuel prices at P2.25 per liter for gas, and P4.10 per liter for diesel.
“The president, aside from his outright callousness, seems gullible to his economic managers amid inflation rates that have been swelling since last year,” Casilao said.
He cited data indicating that July 2016, inflation rates was at 1.9 percent and that in July this year, it went up to 2.8 percent. The 3.4 percent inflation rates last March and April were also the highest since 2015, he noted.
“The increase in prices of goods and services can be partly blamed on the non-stop oil price hikes. The poor is obviously bearing the brunt, but the President is pre-occupied with his botched ‘war on drugs’ and all-out war against the people,” Casilao said.
