Oreta claims oil prices overpriced

Gasoline and diesel products remain overpriced by P1 per liter despite the series of rollbacks made by the country’s three major oil players, opposition Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta said yesterday.

She said Shell, Caltex and Petron merely hoodwinked the public when they implemented a decrease in the prices of gasoline by 20 centavos per liter and kerosene by 10 centavos per liter.

"Oil companies have not changed their devious tactic of gradually implementing measly fuel price rollbacks while being quick to the draw in jacking up their rates whenever there is a slight uptick in global crude oil prices. This practice deceives consumers into believing they are being treated fairly by oil companies," Oreta said.

She noted that these "token rollbacks" will not give consumers a fair deal.

A study done by private research group Ibon Databank showed that diesel is overpriced by 58 centavos per liter, kerosene by about P1.32 and unleaded gasoline by P1.64 "if one were to use the rule-of-thumb that every $1 rise in world crude prices translates into a 26-centavo increase in local fuel prices and a one-peso fall against the dollar adds another 13 centavos per liter," Oreta said.

Malacañang, she said, should exert moral suasion over Shell, Caltex and Petron to substantially temper their fuel price increases for the benefit of ordinary consumers.

Oreta added that Malacañang should also create an oversight committee to ensure fail oil pricing in the country.

"Forming an oversight panel would help protect the masses from the profit-raking schemes of the major players in the oil industry, which have necessarily taken advantage of the fluctuating oil prices and the peso-dollar exchange rate to apparently overprice their gasoline and diesel products," she said.

Oreta said the creation of an oversight committee will also put an end to the oil companies’ "rapacious" habit of quickly imposing fuel price increases once prices are up in the world market, but deliberately slow in effecting "honest" rollbacks whenever oil prices in the world market are low.

"It is time for the government to put an end to this anti-consumer practice by putting up an oversight committee that would keep an eye on the books and price adjustment mechanisms of these oil companies," she said.

Last Friday, two other oil firms announced a reduction in the prices of their fuel products. Eastern Petroleum said they will reduce the price of its gasoline by 20 centavos per liter while Seaoil plans to reduce its prices by only 10 centavos per liter.

The rollback in oil prices by Shell, Caltex and Petron came even after some new oil players dismissed the possibility of another price rollback within the month as projected by the Department of Energy.

The latest reduction in gasoline prices is the sixth time and the four time for kerosene products since last April.

Energy Secretary said the rollback, coupled with special incentives given by oil companies on diesel products, will give bus and jeepney operators no reason to request for a fare hike.

He said he based his projects of another price rollback on the "softening" of world oil prices in the last few days.