Oil firms hike prices for fourth straight week

MANILA, Philippines - For the fourth straight week, oil companies increased prices of petroleum products again, saying that movements in the global crude market merit another price hike.

In separate advisories, oil firms announced another round of price increases effective 6 a.m. yesterday.

Petron Corp. said it implemented a P1.20 per liter increase for premium gasoline, diesel and kerosene and P1.10 per liter hike for regular gasoline.

“This reflects movements in the international oil market,” Petron said.

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. also raised prices by P1.20 per liter for unleaded premium, kerosene and diesel and P1.10 for regular gasoline.

New oil firm Phoenix Petroleum announced similar price adjustments.

Other oil firms have not yet issued advisories as of press time.

The Department of Energy earlier hinted that oil price hikes would continue in the coming weeks, given the tight supply in the world market.

Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla has said the crisis in Syria and the economic recovery in the United States are among the factors boosting demand and tightening supply in the world market.

“I cannot say that it will go up or that it will go down. The trend in the international environment is pointing toward the direction of price increase but that can change,” Petilla said.

He said the appreciation of the peso is not enough to mitigate the impact of higher oil prices, but acknowledged that local pump prices could be higher if the peso was depreciating against the dollar.

The peso has been appreciating against the dollar, closing at P41.05 against the dollar and has been trading at the P40-level since the start of the year.

To mitigate the impact of higher oil prices on consumers and public transport groups, the government may revive its Pantawid Pasada program.

The Pantawid Pasada program, which started in May 2011, is an interim measure of the government to cushion the impact of high fuel prices, particularly to public utility jeepneys.

Under the program, the government provided some 100,000 public transport drivers a subsidy of P1,050 for the initial amount and then another P1,200.

Protest against price hike

Militant public transport group Pagkaka-isa ng mga Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (Piston) will launch their campaign to clinch a party-list seat in Congress with a transport protest caravan today to condemn the new round of oil price increase.

George San Mateo, Piston president, said the oil price hike protest would be the linchpin in the group’s campaign to win a seat in the House of Representatives.

San Mateo said that their protest caravan would start at the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City on the way to the head offices of Petron, Chevron and Shell in Pasig City and Makati City.– With Rainier Allan Ronda