Another oil price rollback seen this week

MANILA, Philippines – Motorists can expect another bigtime price rollback this week as international prices continue to ease, an oil industry executive said.

“Gasoline will have an additional rollback close to P1 while diesel will have slight reduction,” Fernando Martinez, chairman emeritus of the Independent Philippine Petroleum Companies Association (IPPCA), said in a text message.

“With the end of the driving season in the US, gasoline is on the downtrend while diesel is almost steady,” Martinez said.

This will mark the second consecutive weekly price drop in local fuel prices.

IPPCA members include Eastern Petroleum, Seaoil Philippines, Flying V, Chemrez Technologies, Filoil, Filpride, CityOil, Oilink International, Unioil Petroleum and Pryce Gases.

Last week, major and independent players slashed prices of premium gasoline by 90 centavos and regular gas by 20 centavos.

The oil companies did not adjust prices of diesel and kerosene.

The consecutive price increases since July to late August prompted the Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations to file a petition for a P2 increase in the minimum fare of passenger jeepneys that would hike the minimum fare from the current P8 to P10.

Year-to-date, the net increase for gasoline hit P3.08 per liter while diesel recorded a net increase of P1.97 per liter, data from the Department of Energy (DOE) showed.

Under Republic Act 8479 or the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998, oil firms can set the prices of petroleum products based on market forces to encourage competition.

The deregulation law also prohibits the government from intervening or influencing the pricing schemes of the oil companies.

However, the government, through the DOE, has the power to monitor prices. For monitoring purposes, the DOE has requested the firms to report to the any price adjustments.