Davao City- The nationwide distribution of smart cards meant to give discounts to fuel purchased by public utility jeepney drivers was met with a protest action by drivers and operators under the progressive Transmision-Piston today.
The protest action staged along Shell gasoline station along Bajada corner Torres St., this city reiterates the driver and operators’ clamor to scrap oil deregulation law and the Value Added Tax imposed on petroleum products.
According to Edil Gonzaga, Secretary-General of Transmision-Piston, “the fuel subsidy is useless and indeed a waste of people’s money. It’s a gimmickry intends to deodorize PNoy’s administration who is clearly favoring big oil companies.”
Gonzaga cited that only a few days after the announcement P-Noy on the said fuel subsidy, the oil price rose twice with an increase of almost P2 per liter.
“Now we see that this fuel subsidy is useless,” he said.
Transmision expressed its support to the proposed repeal of the oil deregulation law in the congress saying this is a more substantive move to bring down the oil price.
The group also expressed its support to the ratification of the P125 wage increase bill being pushed by the progressive partylists in congress.
Gonzaga added, “ If P-Noy really wants to alleviate the hardship of the people, he must have a political will to approve the legislated wage hike. But, we all know that P-noy, just like the previous administration is inutile in favoring the marginalized sectors.”
The smart card being distributed to selected drivers will give P1.00 discount to every 1 liter purchase of gas and diesel. “It is not even enough to cover the increase imposed by oil corporations this April,” Gonzaga lamented.
He said, “We want a long-term solution to the economic turmoil we all bear. Enough of fooling the people of gimmickry like that of the fuel subsidy.”
DAVAO CITY ---Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Southern Mindanao Region (Bayan-SMR) unites with the tribesmen and community of slain Bagobo K’lata leader Datu Dominador Diarog in their struggle from the fierce attempts of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy to grab the land that is home to their tribe.
Their case is a classic struggle faced by the national minorities in the country who have, since time, been frequently victimized in various ways, but principally by attempts to evict them from the land on which they derive their means of living, their cultural values and life systems. The death of Datu Diarog in 2008 was a tragic culmination of his almost decade of struggle in defense of the fertile agricultural land beneath Mt. Apo which is home to the Bagobo Klata tribe.
Since 1999, Quiboloy was able to occupy 5,000 hectares of land covering portions at the foot of Mt. Apo particularly in Brgy. Tamayong, Brgy. Manuel Guianga, Brgy. Sirib, and Brgy.Carmen in the City. These lands have been either converted into ‘prayer mountains,’ extravagant mansions, pine tree plantations, and just recently a gherkins (small cucumber) plantation is being planned in Sitio Kahusayan.
But Quiboloy was never successful in his attempt at fully taking over the land since Datu Diarog refused to yield their 5-hectare stead in Sitio Kahusayan, Brgy. Manuel Guianga in Tugbok District, which is within Quiboloy’s claim.
The Diarog’s land has been fenced off, their house burned, and Datu Diarog himself was talked into by Quiboloy’s men, one of them was identified by Diarog family members as a certain Greg Canada, to sell the land at P50,000 per hectare, but still they persisted and held on to their land.
Such harassment incidents preceded Datu Diarog’s death three years ago on April 29, 2008, when armed men strafed his house, killed him with armalite bullets and injured some of his family members, his wife and his then five-year-old daughter.
Since the Datu’s death, there was never a day that his family and his diminishing tribesmen in Sitio Kahusayan live away from coercsions and brutal attempts of eviction.
Just this month, three backhoes had been escorted to the village by military personnel from the 84th Infantry Battalion. These soldiers have been deployed in the area for several months now as “Peace and Development Teams.”
Members of the Diarog clan have in several times, too, figured in the harassments perpetrated by these soldiers, who are so-called ‘PDTs.’ These harassments are either in the form of being tagged as rebels, or being sought out by the soldiers themselves.
The attacks never ended in Datu Diarog’s death; and neither did his surviving tribesmen’s resistance.
The place claimed by Quiboloy is not just the sacred ground of indigenous peoples whose protection are ensured in the very laws of the country and in international covenants, but a sacred conservation ground too, being part of the declared Mt. Apo protected area.
It is lamentable that amidst these deplorable incidents, we have yet to hear government institutions act on the matter: The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the City Government of Davao itself.
It is appalling that these institutions, by the very fact that Quiboloy has continued amassing of wealth, unhampered, is a tragic proof of their tolerance of such beastly deed. We have been calling on them for action, but it seems they too are rendered inutile.
This forces us to turn our appeals on the Davaoeńos. We call on you to rally behind our lumad brothers and sisters of Kahusayan; to rallyin opposition to this blatant violation of human rights and dignities of lumad peoples who are our very own fellow Davaoeńos.
To fight on their side is to fight to end the impunity of these giant oppressors in our midst.
