Progressive lawmakers denounced US President Donald Trump’s order to blockade the Strait of Hormuz as efforts to de-escalate tensions in West Asia failed.
Members of the Makabayan Coalition of progressive lawmakers condemned Trump’s announcement that the US Navy will begin its blockade after negotiations with Iran failed to produce a de-escalation agreement.
In a social media post on Sunday, Trump said the American navy shall also “hunt down” ships in international waters that have paid Iran-imposed fees to pass through the strait.
But several members of the House of Representatives said it is US that is using the Pakistan-brokered two-week ceasefire to wrest control of the Strait of Hormuz from Iran through a “de facto blockade.”
“This reckless escalation risks reigniting hostilities, undermining the fragile two-week truce, and keeping the entire world hostage to Washington’s military coercion,” the Makabayan bloc said.
ACT Rep. Antonio Tinio, Gabriela Rep. Sarah Elago, and Kabataan Rep. Renee Co warned that Trump’s threat could only result in worsening the war and economic inflation throughout the world, including the Philippines.
“We warn that oil markets will treat any blockade posture and renewed tension in the Strait of Hormuz as justification to jack up prices again. Any announced rollback in domestic pump prices may be short-lived, especially if new geopolitical shocks are deliberately manufactured,” the legislators said.
Tinio, Elago and Co pointed out that it is ordinary citizens who suffer from Trump-instigated war in the region and should not be made to absorb another wave of price surges due to the failure of the talks in Islamabad.
“The US should be blamed for the constriction of fuel supply and it is the people who are suffering from this war,” Makabayan said.
The lawmakers likewise assailed oil companies in the Philippines who refused to reduce profits throughout the five weeks of the conflict. All fuel retailers in the Philippines increased pump prices except one small company, Gazz, that reduced prices by P5 per liter of petrol and diesel.
“Every ‘crisis’ becomes a profit window for oil companies and traders, while workers, commuters, drivers, and poor communities endure higher transport costs, higher food prices, higher electricity rates, and deeper hardship,” the legislators said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
