Petron cleans dealer ranks in anti-dumping campaign

MANILA, Philippines - As part of its anti-dumping campaign, oil refining giant Petron Corp. has severed ties and filed criminal cases against five service station dealers in the first quarter of 2016.

The company said this is part of efforts to closely monitor its station network to protect the integrity of its products and promote the welfare of consumers against illegal activities.

Petron ended the dealer contracts of Benjamin Morgado (Brgy. Balayan, Victoria, Tarlac), Florante Soriquez (Brgy. San Miguel, Taguig City), Jesus Durano (Danao City, Cebu), Ivan Herrero (Tanjay, Negros Oriental) and Ferdinand Custodio (General Trias, Cavite). Four of these dealers are now facing criminal complaints.

The oil firm said it discovered these five dealers were “dumping,” or acquiring fuels from other sources and then passing them off to consumers as Petron-branded products.

It has also pulled out all its equipment, branding materials, and ceased deliveries to the five stations to stop the respondents from cheating the public and curb this illegal practice.

Under the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines or Republic Act 8293, “dumping” is punishable by law. It is a form of unfair competition which is a direct result of oil smuggling which encourages the proliferation of sub-standard fuels that do not meet Philippine National Standards.

Cases against Morgado and Soriquez are now pending with the Prosecutor’s Office of Tarlac and Taguig, respectively, while the case against Custodio is pending with the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Manila which issued the search warrant against him.