Press Release
December 17, 2008

ROXAS TO PALACE: HIGH OIL PRICES YOUR FAULT
OIL FIRMS GETTING AWAY WITH GOV'T CONNIVANCE

Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas today said oil companies are getting away with imposing high prices of gasoline and diesel because President Arroyo has failed to strictly enforce the government's monitoring powers over the industry.

"Ilang ulit na nating hiningi sa Malacañang na pwersahin ang mga kumpanya ng langis na ibaba pa ng todo ang presyo ng diesel, gasolina at iba pang produktong langis. Ipinakita ko na ang komputasyon ko kung bakit mataas pa rin ang presyo, pero walang pakialam si GMA dahil mas mahalaga ang Gloria Forever Charter Change para sa kanila (We have demanded many times that Malacañang force oil companies to lower prices of diesel, gasoline and other oil products. I have shown my computation to prove that there is an overpricing, but GMA is doing nothing because the Gloria Forever Charter Change is more important to them)," Roxas fumed.

He demanded from Malacañang and the Department of Energy that they release to the public their computations to defend their inaction on his demand for a big oil price rollback.

"Sigurado akong may sariling komputasyon ang DOE, dahil trabaho nila iyon. Dapat ilabas na nila ito para ang publiko mismo ang huhusga kung sino ang nagsisinungaling (I'm sure DOE has its own computations, because it's their job to have these. DOE should release these to the public so everybody could see who is lying)," he said.

"Ang problema sa DOE at sa pamahalaang Arroyo ay pinagtatakpan nila ang ang mga dambuhalang kumpanya ng langis at hinahayaan na lang silang magkalat ng kasinungalingan sa publiko (The problem with DOE and the Arroyo government is that they're covering up and allowing these giant oil companies to lie to the public)," he stressed.

Roxas has been asserting that the oil companies have not brought down their pump prices to the same degree as the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) prices has gone down. He said Filipinos are still waiting for bigger and more rollbacks from oil companies this Christmas season.

"Malapit na magpasko, pero hindi ito nararamdaman ng mga taumbayan dahil nananatiling mataas ang presyo ng langis, lalo na ang diesel. Overcharging na nga itong mga kumpanya ng langis, parang nang-aasar pa sa patingi-tingi nilang rollback (It's almost Christmas, but our people still don't feel it because of the high oil prices, especially of diesel. They're not only overcharging, the oil companies are also teasing the public with their small rollbacks)," he said.

The Ilonggo senator said last week's P1-per-liter rollback was an insult. He pointed out that computing oil prices based on international standards, Filipinos were being overcharged.

  FOREX DIESEL  UNLEADED
  (PhP/US$)

 MOPS Price
($/Bbl)

Pump Price
(Php/L)

MOPS Price
($/Bbl)

Pump Price
(Php/L)

July 2008 (Peak) 44.93 168.01

55.99
(ave. month)

135.27  60.46
(ave. month)
December 2008 47.40 66.40 34.94 42.62 34.96
% Change in price 9.4% (60.5%) (37.6%) (68.5%) (42.2%)

He said that even adding transport cost, the 3% oil excise tax and 12% value-added tax to the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) price, and converting this to pesos, diesel should cost P23.52/L, 32.7% or P11.42/L lower than the present P34.94/L price.

Unleaded gasoline, when computed in the same manner, should cost only P15.35, 56.1% or P19.61/L lower than the present P34.96/L price. Even allowing for additional duties and other costs, unleaded should be able to go down more significantly than it has, he said.

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