Diesel and Gas Prices Down By P5, P2 Respectively

There was a time when a thousand pesos can only fill the gasoline tank with 15 liters of diesel. With the successive rollbacks in fuel prices the latest of which was the P5 and the P2 rollback in diesel and gas prices respectively, a thousand pesos can now fill the gas tank with around 26 liters of fuel.

Last Thursday's rollback was the biggest so far for big oil companies Petron, Shell and later on Caltex. This is nothing new for small oil companies like Unioil, Seaoil, Phoenix and the likes because the said companies have lowered their fuel prices in bigger chunks ever since world fuel prices have gone down.

Fuel prices in the world market was at its highest last July, 2008 but it went down by over 50% and is now pegged at $60 per barrel. Philippine fuel prices, especially those from the Big 3 (Caltex, Shell, Petron) have only been reduced by a small percentage to the detriment of the motorists who were expecting a bigger reduction.

PASG's Raid On Unioil Illogical

The legality of the raid conducted by the Philippine Anti Smuggling Group at the Unioil terminal in Mariveles, Bataan just this week is for the courts to decide. However, the logic behind the raid of Unioil as per the words of PASG head Antonio Villar is funny.

Villar was quoted on television interviews saying "ano'ng human rights violation bahala na sila dyan..." or something to that effect shows that the guy needs to attend a human rights seminar or even a basic criminal law subject to understand the intricacies of human rights and proper arrests. Moreso, this guy probably needs to be briefed on proper public relations because the way he spoke those words on television made him look like a remnant of martial law.

Based on Villar's words, the small oil companies or all oil companies for that matter should be wary when they lower their fuel prices. In short, they should always follow the prices of the other companies just like Caltex, Petron and Shell to avoid being suspected of smuggling.

Villar said the ability of Unioil to reduce fuel prices by P3 is suspect: kasi bakit sila kaya nila eh yung malalaking oil companies eh di kaya?" The logic is plain stupid. This is the same question being asked by the masses and even by the government albeit of a different tact. Why can't the big oil companies lower their fuel prices when the smaller ones can?