RP Gas more expensive than US costliest gas

Jarius Bondoc, a good friend, wrote in his column today at the Philippine Star, how expensive our gasoline pump prices are compared with the costliest US gasoline pump prices. Are we saying now that living here is far more expensive than living there in the States? Why do we still allow these giant oil companies to cook us by our own lard?


Let me re-print what he wrote today:

CNN reported last Monday gas prices to be falling for two straight weeks, despite spikes in crude oil rates. Average price of regular gasoline was $3.29 a gallon, the Lundberg Survey found. That’s 9 cents down from two weeks earlier, and 18 cents less than end-October. While crude rates rose $3.55 a barrel over the two weeks, gas prices fell. This was due to “shrinkage in profit margins of the downstream portion of the oil industry, that is, refiners and retailers,” publisher Trilby Lundberg said. “They were unable to pass on the higher oil rates because American motorists’ demand for gasoline continues to shrink due to hard economic conditions.”

It’s unlikely gas prices will continue to fall, though, Lundberg said, for refiners and retailers “will not be able to sustain losses on and on. It will depend on what crude oil does.”

The Lundberg Survey tallies prices at thousands of gas stations across America. The city with the lowest average last Dec. 5 was Albuquerque, New Mexico, at $2.84 a gallon; highest was San Francisco, at $3.67 a gallon.

Let’s compare that to Philippine pump prices, say, Seaoil unleaded gasoline, at P50.99 per liter in Metro Manila last Dec. 6. San Francisco’s $3.67 a gallon, divided by 4 (liters to a gallon), times 43 (pesos to a dollar) equals P39.45 per liter. SanFo, America’s most expensive gas city, is P11.54 cheaper per liter than Metro Manila. How come?

I think it is time to OCCUPY THESE CENTERS OF CORPORATE GREED AND MADNESS by those who want nothing more than fairness and equality in market prices.