Talaga Mr. Bunye?!?
Oil price hikes beyond our control, Palace says http://www.gmanews.tv/story/66929/Oil-price-hikes-beyond-our-control-Palace-says
Malacañang admitted Friday that the government is helpless against fuel price hikes even as it urged Filipinos to count their blessings in the wake of surging oil prices in the world market.
Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said rising pump prices should prompt everyone to employ stronger conservation measures and convince politicians as well to stop bickering so all parties can focus on addressing the task at hand.
"The runaway price of oil is beyond the government's control. This serves as a continuing wake up call for all sectors that there are more things to attend to other than relentless politics of personal destruction," Bunye said.
Talaga Mr. Bunye?!?
This is another lie that won't fly.
In the first place, it is the Philippine government (time ni FVR) that decided to withdraw its control on oil prices by fully deregulating the oil industry.
This allowed the oil companies (Shell, Petron, Caltex, even the so-called small players we have today like Total) to jack up their prices at the whim of the so-called international market.
Government can control prices if it wants to. An example is what Venezuela (yes the Latin American country, not Valenzuela City) did. They nationalized their oil industry and kicked out the transnational oil corporations. So they get relatively stable oil prices.
Now back to this government with Gloria at the helm. If cheating, stealing and lying has gotten them the better so far, this thing about government not having a chance to stop the skyrocketting oil prices is pure bull.
There are three things this government can do to considerably address rampant oil price hikes:
1. institute price controls
2. centralize the procurement of crude and refined oil
3. re-nationalized Petron Corp.
Now I'd like to see how they can answer this. There will be proposed legislation filed by militant lawmakers next week.
Aside from the bigger issue of a better, stronger impeachment case against Gloria, some proposed laws to address the oil price hikes is something worth watching as a sidelight.
And yes Mr. Bunye, this isn't personal. This is practical.
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