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Thursday, December 21, 2006
Gasoline prices cut by 2 pesos per liter
CEBU CITY -- Petron Corp. slashed pump prices of gasoline and diesel by P2 per liter a few hours ago, but the leader of a Metro Cebu transport group believes this isn't likely to bring down jeepney fares.
The price cut, which took effect at midnight Wednesday, will stay in effect until midnight of Jan. 1, 2007 and was described in a press statement as the company's Yuletide gift to motorists.
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Neither of the two other major industry players, Pilipinas Shell and Caltex, followed suit with a rollback announcement as of 11 Wednesday night.
Only Petron service stations in Cebu and Metro Manila will be offering the reduced prices. As of June 2005, at least 21 Petron service stations operated in Metro Cebu, out of over 1,200 stations nationwide.
Unleaded gasoline currently sells at P35.43 to P37.92 per liter and diesel at P30.77 to P34.80 per liter.
"We hope the transport sector will automatically reduce their rates on their own initiative and that the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) will allow them to," said Cebu City Councilor Sylvan Jakosalem in a text message to Sun.Star.
"That way, the benefits will trickle down to everyone as soon as possible and not just be limited to the motorists and drivers," added Jakosalem, who chairs the council committee on energy and transportation.
But the head of the Nagkahiusang Drayber sa Sugbo (Nadsu) was unimpressed with the rollback. Nadsu claims some 8,000 drivers as its members in Metro Cebu.
"Dili ni siya solusyon sa tinuod nga problema sa kinabag-an karon. Usa sa mga solusyon mao ang pag-umento sa suholan sa mga mamumo (This will not solve the people's real problems. One such solution would be to raise workers' wages)," Nadsu president Anthony Pogado told Sun.Star in a phone interview Wednesday night.
Pogado said it was his opinion that the increase was a form of "ulog-ulog" (a palliative) to persuade people not to hit the streets to express their opposition to the Arroyo administration's Charter change maneuvers.
Asked if a temporary fare reduction can be expected, Pogado pointed out that while the LTFRB raised minimum jeepney fares to P7.50 in Metro Manila starting mid-2005, drivers in Metro Cebu were allowed only a minimum fare of P6.
"Dili lang unta ilaron sa gobyerno ang kinabag-an (I just wish the government wouldn't try to fool the people)," Pogado added.
As of 2006, Petron accounted for 34.3 percent of the retail market. It is the largest oil refining and marketing company in the Philippines.
From January to September this year, it reported an 18.64 percent increase in its revenues from the same period last year. It reported P164.2 billion in revenues for the first nine months of 2006.
However, the company website also reported a 16.4 percent reduction in its profits for the same period, which it blamed on "the sudden and steep drop in crude and finished product prices in the third quarter."
Since October, oil prices have been dropping due to the softening of world oil prices.
But crude oil prices rose $1.41 a barrel last week, mostly because the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) agreed to cut production by 500,000 barrels a day starting in February. In October, the cartel said it would remove 1.2 million barrels a day of production from the market.
While traders were initially skeptical of Opec's ability to get members to comply with the October cut, a drop in production from most of the cartel's 11 members has given more weight to that decision. (Sunnex/With AP)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Dumaguete. (December 21, 2006 issue)
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