ROXAS RENEWS CALL FOR REVIEW OF FISCAL BOOKS OF OIL FIRMS
'BIG' REDUCTION NOT BIG AT ALL IF COMPARED WITH WORLD TREND

Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas on Thursday urged anew the Department of Energy (DoE) to examine the financial books of the country's oil players to determine if more rollbacks on the prices of diesel, gasoline and other petroleum products could be implemented.

Roxas, chairman of the Senate trade and commerce committee, said the P5 per liter reduction for diesel products and the P2 per liter reduction for gasoline and kerosene products are not enough, especially following huge drops in world oil prices, which has gone down to below $70 a barrel in Dubai.

"Tingnan natin kung maaari pang ibaba ng mga oil companies ang presyo ng kanilang mga produkto. Malaki ang ibinagsak ng halaga ng langis sa international market. Hanggang dito lang ba ang rollback na kaya ng mga oil companies natin? (Let's see if more price cuts could be implemented. The prices of oil in the world market have dropped tremendously. Is this the most that they could reduce their prices?)" he asked.

He insisted a review of the financial books of the "Big Three" oil companies - Shell, Petron and Caltex - would help the DoE determine if there could be more price cuts.

"Bakit kasi hindi pwersahin ni Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes ang mga kumpanya ng langis na ito na buksan ang kanilang libro para makita ng gobyerno kung tama ba o hindi ang sinisingil nilang presyo? (Why can't Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes force these companies to open their books so we can check if the prices of their products are fair?)," he asked.

"Malalaman nating kung maaari pang mas lalong bumaba ang presyo ng langis kung alam natin kung magkano ba ang perang kinikita ng mga kumpanyang ito. Tingnan natin kung totoo ang mga sinasabi nilang malaki ang nalugi sa kanila nung tumaas ang presyo ng langis sa world market. (We can determine if the prices could be further cut if we know how much income is being earned by these companies. We can also find out if there is truth to their claims that they have yet to recover from their losses when oil prices soared earlier this year)," he added.

At the same time, Roxas reiterated his call for the removal of the 12% value-added tax (VAT) imposed on petroleum in light of the global financial meltdown.

He insisted that removing the VAT on oil would provide much-needed relief for Filipinos who are still reeling from the record-high prices in the international and domestic oil markets.