Oil prices rolled back for third time

MANILA, Philippines - Oil companies will slash prices of gasoline, diesel, and kerosene effective today.

Petron Corp., the country’s biggest oil refiner, led the price cut announcement yesterday with a P1.05 per liter rollback for Blaze 100, XCS, Xtra Advance and Super Xtra.

Prices of Turbo Diesel and DieselMax will also go down by P1.65 per liter and kerosene by P1.60 per liter.

“This reflects movements in the international oil market,” Petron said.

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. also announced a price rollback of P1.05 per liter for gasoline, P1.65 per liter for diesel and P1.60 per liter for kerosene.

Oil firms rolled back prices of gasoline and diesel products for the third time this month.

With the latest adjustment, gasoline prices may go down to P50 per liter while diesel prices may drop to P38 per liter.

Meanwhile, the National Council for Commuter’s Safety and Protection urged the transport sector to implement a 50-centavo fare cut following the oil price reduction. The current minimum fare for jeepney is P8.

The oil price rollback was a relief for motorists and the consuming public after the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) announced an increase in electricity rates.

Electricity rates of the average residential consumers with a 200 per kilowatt-hour monthly consumption rose by 27 centavos per kwh effective this month due to increase in generation and transmission charges last month.

The power distributor noted a 5-percent increase in daily electricity usage in March as customers used more electricity to beat the summer heat.