Rights group supports transport strike vs oil price hikes, US war against Iran
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS STATEMENT
19 March 2026
Reference: Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general, 09173162831
KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 09189790580
Rights group supports transport strike vs oil price hikes, US war against Iran
In light of the unprecedented upward spiral in oil prices, KARAPATAN joins various sectors of society in calling for the junking of the Value Added Tax (VAT) on all products and services as well as the excise tax on oil.
The VAT was adopted in 1986 as part of a “structural adjustment program” imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the Philippines in exchange for loans. Successive Philippine regimes have imposed the VAT to raise tax revenues. On top of the VAT, which is charged at each stage of the supply chain, the government also imposes an excise tax at the point of manufacture. The ultimate victims are the consumers who end up shouldering both the excise tax and the VAT that manufacturers and sellers pass on to them whenever they pay for goods and services.
All Philippine regimes since the VAT’s inception have been reluctant to let go of this onerous tax. As of 2023, almost 20% of the government’s tax income was sourced from the VAT, disproportionately squeezing the poor dry. In 2026, it is projected to earn up to P360 billion from excise taxes, P136 billion of which would come from oil.
Yet the government has consistently refused to impose a wealth tax and has in fact been offering tax incentives and other forms of tax breaks to big businesses owned by the country’s billionaires, making the Philippine taxation system progressive in name but regressive in essence.
The grave economic crisis spawned by US imperialist incursions in the Middle East will greatly impact the poor, who are in need of relief. The junking of the VAT, and not just the excise tax on oil, will significantly lighten the economic burdens of the vast majority of low and middle income Filipinos. The repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law, imposed by the IMF to deregulate the downstream oil industry and allow oil companies to set the price of oil products, is likewise long overdue, considering the billions of profits by big oil companies and the deleterious effects on people’s livelihood since its enactment.
If the government is loathe to reduce its revenues, there are ready sources available to replenish what it will lose from the junking of the VAT and the excise tax on oil—it can abolish graft-ridden items in the national budget, like the pork barrel and the Confidential and Intelligence Fund or CIFs, and it can defund and abolish the unproductive and notorious National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
Meanwhile, with the latest diesel prices now averaging more than P100 per liter and gasoline prices costing more than P90 per liter, we enjoin the public to support the nationwide transport strike on March 19 and 20 to dramatize our urgent demands to put an end to VAT, roll back oil prices and abolish the pork barrel and other burdensome and unproductive government expenses.
We call on the public to protest against the ongoing imperialist war of the United States against Iran, endangering the people of Iran and worsening the impact on the oppressed peoples, including the Filipino people.
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign. It was established in 1995.