Labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno said today that the Department of Energy is powerless in stopping oil price hikes and the overpricing of petroleum products in the light of the Big 3 oil companies’ refusal to implement a P2.00 rollback which the department demanded last week.
Last week, the DOE said it will revive a task force with the Department of Justice to investigate the profits of the local oil companies should the latter refuse to implement a rollback by as much as P2.00 per liter.
This week, the Big 3 implemented the following rollbacks in the per liter price of their products:
| Diesel, kerosene | Gasoline | |
| Petron | 1.70 | 2.50 |
| Shell | 1.70 | 1.50 |
| Caltex | 1.70 | 1.50 |
“It is clear that the Big 3 oil companies do not fear nor respect the Department of Energy to implement the meager rollback demanded by the agency. The problem is that the DOE and the entire government, does not have coercive powers over the Big 3,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, KMU chairperson.
“We seriously doubt whether the DOE will make real its threat of investigating the Big 3’s profits. We have even more serious doubts as to whether investigating the books of the Big 3 will be productive, as the Big 3 knows many magic tricks when it comes to declaring their profits,” he added.
KMUÂ said the rollbacks implemented by the Big 3 this week are an indication of its continued overpricing of petroleum products.
“What this round of rollbacks show is that the Big 3 is not merely following the price movements of oil in the global market, but is using these to rake in greater profits by overpricing their products,” Labog said.
“Immediate and steep increases when the world prices of oil increase and snail-paced and meager decreases when the world prices of oil decrease – this is where we can see the overpricing being implemented by the Big 3,” he added.
The labor center also said that the Oil Deregulation Law should be junked to enable the government to protect the people from unabated price hikes and overpricing.
“Unless the government junks the Oil Deregulation Law, it can only issue empty threats against the Big 3. Junking the law is the first step to controlling oil prices in the country and punishing oil companies for overpricing and monopoly profiteering,” Labog said.
“But with Pres. Aquino’s defense of the Oil Deregulation Law, the Filipino workers and people have no other choice than launch protests in the coming weeks to put pressure on the Aquino government to heed our calls,” he added. Bong Labog, KMU Chairperson
