THESAURUS defines it as “a consortium of independent organizations formed to limit competition by controlling the production and distribution of a product or service.”

The Revised Penal Code makes it a felony to combine into a cartel to control the sale and distribution of products or services.

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When the Oil Deregulation Law was enacted in 1998 [Republic Act 8479], the oil industry was an open field for all players, big or small, local or multinational. The monopoly of the big three – Shell, Petron, and Caltex – was over.

So we thought.

After a decade, the oil industry still behaves just like a cartel. When the world oil price increases, the three big players almost at the same time raise the pump prices of fuel. Peculiarly, the prices are the same.

When the world oil price drops, the decrease in pump prices is delayed, and voila, the prices are still the same.

If you don’t conclude there is a cartel, then maybe you are reading a different dictionary, or you are reading a penal law of other planets.

The telltale signs of monopoly are written in bold letters in the wall.

To the credit of the Oil Deregulation Law, small oil players mushroomed: Triple V, Seaoil, and Jetti, to name a few.

The small players hardly made a dent in the monopolistic grip of the big three over pump prices of fuel. Many small players just drowned in the sea of competition. The big three have overwhelming resources under their sleeves.

Jetti Oil, a small player, tried to penetrate the market, especially in Metro Manila and Mindanao. It has no presence in Metro Cebu and surrounding areas in the Visayas.

Jetti came out with a simple marketing strategy that is as old as commerce itself. Keep the fuel prices lower than the rest of the competitors, and the consumers will troop to the stations.

It worked. With few cents, and at times pesos, lower than the big three, consumers flock to Jetti stations. The big three were forced to adjust the pump prices, or else they would just bite the dust.

The competition has kept the fuel prices in Mindanao and Metro Manila lower than the rest of the country.

Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, alarmed with the disparity in fuel prices, sued the big three for cartelization and predatory pricing in clear violation of Republic Act 8479. She found out that fuel prices in Cebu are P5 to P8 higher than in Metro Manila and Mindanao.

The higher fuel prices in Cebu escape facts and logic. Bewildered, Gov. Garcia hailed the big three before the Department of Justice on May 28, 2009.

Governor Garcia need not be told this. But for the deaf and the blind, truth must be told for the nth times. Without real competition, the big three have heydays with predatory pricing. The minor oil firms operating in Cebu simply joined the fray.

But in Metro Manila and Mindanao where Jetti has gasoline stations, the fuel prices have been held in check. A David took a small pie of the market share from the Goliaths.

While the Oil Deregulation Law tries to even the playing field, the reality on the ground is decisively different.

Unseen hands are behind the smuggling raps that were filed against Customs Commissioner Morales, Mindanao Container Port Collector Amistad, and executives of Jetti. Allegedly, Jetti did not pay the taxes and custom duties.

The Bureau of Customs has virtually cleared Jetti of any wrongdoing. Yet the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG), which is under the Office of the President, is pursuing the charge.

In the cloud of allegations and charges, truth is buried in slogans and propaganda. But there is one fact that cannot be doubted. The big three for decades now have been preying on the Filipino people. The data on cartelization and predatory pricing can easily constitute probable cause enough to indict the perpetrators.

Public interest is well-served if the complaint of Gov. Garcia before the Department of Justice will see persons in the indictment list for violations of the Oil deregulation Law. Until this is done, any pursuit after the small oil players will always be tainted. Suspicions of muzzling the small ones always float in the air if we see selective persecution err prosecution.

[E-mail comments to tmpjr70@yahoo.com.ph]