Piston holds another noise barrage vs new oil price hikes

MANILA, Philippines—The Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston) held another noise barrage Tuesday in front of Victory Mall in Monumento, Quezon City to contest the new oil price increases.

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. has raised prices of unleaded premium gasoline by 50 centavos a liter, diesel by 60 centavos a liter and kerosene by 40 centavos a liter effective 12 midnight Tuesday, to reflect the continued uptrend in the world oil market.

Chevron (formerly Caltex) Philippines also imposed an increase on its WPP (wholesale purchase price) effective 6 a.m. while Petron Corp. is scheduled to hike their oil prices by 12 noon, Piston secretary general George San Mateo said, adding that the price of diesel has been increased 16 times this year while it has been rolled back only five times.

“This is very hard for public transport drivers who are using gas everyday,” said San Mateo.

“If prices will continue to increase, we will be forced to conduct a national protest,” San Mateo added.

Sarding Repaso, Piston-National Capital Region auditor, said that this was the third time the transport group was conducting a noise barrage this year following the May 31 and June 7 protests.