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By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo, Reporter
A rollback implemented by three
oil firms in the middle of the week proved too good to be true as
pump prices are set to increase once again today.
An oil executive on Friday said
oil companies will be hiking diesel and kerosene prices by P1.50 per
liter and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for vehicles by P1 per
liter.
The official, who declined to be
named because of a gag imposed by the Department of Energy on
announcements of price adjustments, added that gasoline prices will
remain unchanged. Flying V, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and
Petron Corp. oil firms lowered their pump prices Wednesday.
Although the oil companies have
recovered their losses from gasoline because of high crude prices,
there still remains P6 to be adjusted from diesel prices.
Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes
earlier ordered the oil firms to remain silent on future price
adjustments so as not to cause “undue panic and anxiety” on
consumers.
The price increase to be
implemented today will mark the 19th time that oil companies have
raised their prices, except for gasoline, because of the soaring
prices of oil in the world market.
As the oil firms continued with
their price increases, so did leftist groups with their protests,
which slammed the adjustments, the brief rollback and the
government’s move to keep imposing value-added tax on oil that has
burned holes in consumers’ pockets.
“Only a callous and anti-people
government can prioritize revenue generation and debt servicing in a
time of severe economic crisis,” said Renato Reyes of Bayan.
He added that the recent rollback
was not enough, “not when oil companies are even threatening to
increase prices by one lump sum of P7 per liter.”
Bayan and other leftist groups
held similar protest actions in various parts of Manila and Quezon
City also on Friday.
Since breaching record highs
several times this year, the domestic price in Metro Manila of
unleaded gasoline has reached P58.10 to P60.07 per liter; kerosene,
P57.10 to P60.30 per liter; and diesel, P53.00 to P54.97 per liter.
The price of an 11-kilogram LPG
cylinder has been ranging from P633.48 to P689.98.
Fuel prices, which are already
almost double than last year’s prices, are expected to continue
rising in the coming weeks as regional price benchmarks also have
continued to go up.
Data from the Energy department
showed that Dubai crude has been averaging at $137.23 per barrel as
of July 11 from $127.82 per barrel in June.
Prices of imported finished
products such as unleaded gasoline have been averaging $144.12 per
barrel from $140.30 and diesel $176.86 per barrel from $169.36 per
barrel.
The contract price for LPG also
has risen to $936.50 per metric ton from $912.50 per metric ton also
as of July 11.
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