Presidential candidate ‘Ka’ Leody De Guzman said the government should not “retail fuel excise taxes.”
The labor leader also said the government should instead suspend the collection of fuel excise taxes and VAT, which in turn will bring immediate “relief” to Filipinos having difficulties with rising oil prices.
“Yung ibibigay na ₱200, prop lang yan gaya nung mga nakaraan. Kunwari nagbigay pero karamihan ng mga tao hindi naman nakatanggap [Translation: The ₱200 will only serve as prop like before. It would look like they’ve provided it but in reality, most people did not receive it],” De Guzman, quoted in a CNN report said.
Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte rejected calls to suspend the collection of fuel excise taxes.
He instead promised to provide a ₱200 monthly subsidy to millions of poor families for a whole year.
However, De Guzman’s running mate and former party-list representative Walden Bello said that “cash grant programs are prone to irregularities.”
Bello also cited the “failure” of the previous administrations to pass the oil deregulation law which would give the government authority to control oil prices.
“Ang hirap talaga ipatupad yan (It’s hard to implement that). It favors certain groups, it’s prone to corruption,” Bello, in the CNN report, said.
Both De Guzman and Bello meanwhile said they support calls for a no car day once or twice a week.
De Guzman and Bello said Filipinos “should be less reliant on cars” and go for more environment-friendly modes of transportation like the bicycle.
De Guzman further said he does not support the construction of more elevated expressways as these will only encourage people to buy cars.
He said government should instead develop better mass transport strategies.