By Chito Chavez A militant labor leader on Wednesday contradicted President Rodrigo Duterte’s claim that “he cannot do anything to control the prices of oil even if the people hang him’’. Leody De Guzman of the Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM) insisted this is untrue even accusing the President of “only guarding the interests of the foreign bankers financing his build, build, build program’’. (Volunteers for Ka Leody Facebook page / MANILA BULLETIN) “For starters, Duterte is already implementing the second tranche of the excise tax imposition under his tax reform package. This, he can immediately suspend by simply issuing an executive order,” said De Guzman. Since January, De Guzman said the administration has been collecting an additional P2 per liter on diesel and gasoline. He noted this is on top of the P2.50 per liter of diesel and P2.65 for a liter of gasoline imposed when the TRAIN Law took effect in January 1, 2018. Besides the excise taxes, the government also levies a 12 percent value added tax (VAT) on petroleum and petroleum products. He revealed that Duterte’s inaction to drastically address the negative impact brought about by his tax reform package is “because he wants to guarantee to his creditors, particularly but not limited to Chinese banks, that the government has sufficient funds to pay its loans’’. “If Duterte really wishes to lift the yoke on the shoulders of the masses and shield them from further sinking into poverty then all he has to do is have the political will to cease the collection of levies. The people are already overtaxed, underpaid and are gravely in need of social services,” he added. De Guzman also pointed out the government’s helplessness in controlling oil prices is further aggravated by the oil deregulation law which practically gives oil companies a free hand on setting their retail prices without state intervention. Read more: Duterte admits he could not do anything about high fuel prices