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Filipinos are almost in a panic over rising prices of
gasoline, kerosene, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas and with good
reason. For months now, the price of a barrel of crude oil has been
rising steadily, breaking the $135 mark recently, and with no signs
of stopping. Various analyses trotted out in the news speculate that
crude could hit $200 dollars per barrel, which would definitely lead
to more peso pinching, that is, if there are any pesos left to
pinch.
Naturally there has been a lot of
grumbling about how oil companies are reaping record profits, how
they are charging too much, extorting mercilessly from consumers.
The thing is, what can the government and the people do about it?
Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes
wants oil companies to justify their underrecoveries, which has led
to weekly increases of anywhere from 50 centavos to P2 in the prices
of gas, diesel, kerosene and LPG. Already, the price of unleaded gas
ranges from P51 to P54 per liter, diesel from P44 to P47, kerosene
from P48 to P52 plus, and LPG from P593 to P639 per tank. But even
with the latest price increases there’s about P9 to P11 left to
recover, according to these oil companies, and there’s no
immediate relief in sight for the people.
Reyes told oil companies
increases due to underrecoveries must be based on costs incurred and
not on projected or speculated international price increases. He
also told oil companies any announcement of underrecoveries must be
first cleared with the Department of Energy. But really, under a
deregulated oil industry setup there is little Reyes can do about it
if oil companies want to increase their prices.
Deregulation was supposed to
bring down gas prices by offering consumers more options on where to
buy their gas products. Deregulation was supposed to open up the
industry to morenew players, and the competition was supposed to
lower prices. But this has not been the case.
Most of the smaller oil companies
which started operating here after oil deregulation offer prices
that are just about the same as their big brothers. I really think
they are missing a big opportunity here. We saw from experience that
even if just one station would offer lower prices, people made
special trips to get cheaper gas. For instance, there’s one
relatively pump-friendlier gas station, Jetti along Macapagal
Boulevard, which offers gas prices at least by P1 lower, and you can
always see a steady line of vehicles getting their gas from there.
And that’s with only a P1 difference!
Definitely, we need more credible
competition than what the oil deregulation law envisioned to bring
down pump prices. The independent think tank group Ibon Foundation
even blames oil deregulation itself for the record gas prices.
“Deregulation has not affected the domination of the three major
oil companies of the local petroleum market. Instead, it has given
the oil giants more room to manipulate pump prices since their
transactions with their parent companies abroad have become even
less transparent, with price adjustments no longer subjected to
public hearings,” Ibon said in a statement to media.
Ibon believes that a repeal of
the oil deregulation law is in order. It says only state regulation
and control can assure the country’s energy security needs right
now amidst a highly speculative and volatile global oil market. Its
April 2008 survey showed six out of 10 Filipinos want the oil
deregulation repealed.
The party-list groups Anakpawis,
Bayan Muna and Gabriela Women’s Party have already filed three
bills to regulate the oil price increases in the country. These
include House Bill 3029 (An Act Regulating the Downstream Petroleum
Industry and for Other Related Purposes), House Bill 3030 (An Act
Instituting Centralized Procurement of Petroleum in the Country) and
House Bill 3031 (An Act Renationalizing Petron Corporation). A bill
calling for the repeal of the oil deregulation law, R.A. 8479, has
been pending in the Senate Energy Committee since July last year.
For Sen. Ed Angara, more
important is achieving a significant decrease in our dependence on
imported fuel, and that’s why he’s pushing for the immediate
approval of the Renewable Energy Act of 2008.
Angara said that solar,
geothermal, hydro and wind energy are proven power technologies for
which the country has great and untapped potential, and which would
surely and significantly reduce our oil importations—we import 94
percent of our crude oil.
Whatever the measure, the time
for dithering is over. And government action in terms of immediate
implementation of policies is needed to cope with the soaring cost
of crude oil.
ernestboyherrera@yahoo.com
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