Consumers can expect higher diesel prices this week, but gasoline prices may go down to reflect the movement of world oil prices, according to Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc.
“Expect fuel prices to have mix movements next week [Oct. 13 to 19]. Diesel should increase by P0.40 per liter, and gasoline should go down by P0.10 per liter,” Unioil said in its weekly price forecast.
On Oct. 6, the oil firms raised the price of gasoline by P0.10 per liter and kerosene by P0.20 per liter. There was no price movement for diesel.
These resulted in the total year-to-date adjustments to stand at a net decrease of P4.32 per liter of gasoline, P10.71 per liter of diesel and P14.19 per liter of kerosene, according to the latest oil price monitoring of the Department of Energy.
The department last week said it planned to file a motion for reconsideration on the decision of the Court of Appeals upholding the Taguig Regional Trial Court’s issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction on the implementation of the oil unbundling circular.
The department said it had yet to receive a copy of the ruling.
“Once formally received, the DOE intends to seek a reconsideration of the Decision, and raise the issue to the Supreme Court, if necessary,” the department said in a statement.
It said the court ruled only on the issue of the validity of the trial court's issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction.
“While the writ has prevented the DOE from implementing Department Circular DC2019-05-0008 on the unbundling of oil prices during the course of the case in the trial court, the CA decision did not rule on the validity or invalidity of the DC,” the department said.
It considers the circular vital as it believes in the objective of the law for the transparency of oil prices “at least to the government, in order to formulate better and more responsive oil industry policies.”
The department said it issued the circular to help strengthen its ability to monitor oil prices more effectively.
