Palace found oil firms hiked prices illegally

Malacanang thru the Department of Energy just found that oil firms jacked their prices up more than the prescribed adjustments made by the government. And what punishment did the government imposed on these giant oil firms? None.


Read this article from Philippine Star. 

Shell, Chevron and Total announced hikes in the prices of regular gasoline by 70 centavos per liter, unleaded gasoline, 60 centavos; diesel, 25 centavos; and kerosene, 40 centavos, effective 6 a.m. Tuesday. The DOE said the price hikes should have only been P0.16 per liter for diesel and P0.39 for gasoline.

What did the government do? The DOE sent a mere letter to the oil companies.

After receiving a letter from DOE, Chevron cut its prices of unleaded gasolineby P0.60 per liter, diesel by P0.25 per liter, kerosene by P0.40 per liter andregular gasoline by P0.70 per liter at noon yesterday. De Lima also reiterated her plan to put up a new body to be called “DOJ Office for Competition” that would “address cartels and restrictive agreements (among oil firms).”

DOE’s director for Oil Industry Management Bureau Zenaida Monsada earlier said the recent price hikes appeared to be higher than what official computation should indicate.

The DOE said the latest prices – P46.45 to P49 per liter for diesel and P53.60 to P60.81 per liter for gasoline – have already breached record highs in 2008.    

So, these oil giants have been fooling us for the longest time. And the punishment they got? Zero. Zilch. Nada.


What government did was just demand these oil firms to open their books. And then what? Are we going to get a rebate on the things we paid for that were surely exorbitant? 


This government, like the previous ones, are babying these oil companies to the detriment of the general public.


We need a stronger government to address this issue. We need a stronger leader that will really protect the interests of a consuming public always being put at the mercy of multinational companies.