AS global oil prices softened in last week’s trading, prices at Philippine oil pumps will be on rollback starting this weekend by P0.80 per liter for gasoline and P0.60 per liter for diesel.
The first company to jump the gun on competitors was Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. which implemented price cuts at 12:01 a.m. yesterday.
Unioil, Petro Gazz, and Seaoil, which also reduced its kerosene price by P0.20 per liter, followed suit. These oil firms reduced prices from 2 p.m. yesterday to 6 a.m. this morning.
The rest of the industry players are anticipated to follow.
Dubai crude, which is the benchmark for Asian oil markets, had eased to the $80 to $81 per barrel level last week from a higher scale of $84 per barrel the previous week.
For the Philippine oil market, however, as the Dubai crude was still staying at the $80 per barrel level, that is still considered a “critical nib” because that is the prescribed trigger point on the suspension of excise taxes for petroleum products in the country.
Pressure on Malacanang had intensified following 10 weeks of incessant oil price increases, but President Duterte was still blurry when it comes to his pronouncements on the recommended excise taxes suspension.
The Department of Energy has so far been helpless when it comes to that fiat, but it attempted seeking the imprimatur of the Joint Congressional Power Commission on the proposed termination of the oil excise taxes’ enforcement.
The Department claims credit on the discounts being extended to public utility vehicles, but in reality, that is a system with the oil companies already in place as early as the time of the Aquino administration and had just been augmented by the subsidy provision under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act.
The DoE, nonetheless, continued to sound off that it asked the Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. “to look into importing low-cost diesel to augment supply and offer a more affordable fuel option to our public transportation sector.”
The recommended importation of Euro-2 diesel, however, had been a proposal that even legislators staunchly opposed and forthrightly stated in front of Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi during his department’s budget hearing at the Senate. (Myrna M. Velasco)
