The oil companies are set to raise the price of gasoline by P0.80 per liter but will implement a price rollback for diesel of P0.30 per liter and P0.20 per liter for kerosene effective Tuesday.
Petron Corp., the country’s biggest oil firm, was the first to announce the latest weekly price adjustment.
“Petron will implement the following price adjustments effective 6 a.m. on November 19: P0.80 per liter increase for gasoline; P0.30 per liter rollback for diesel; and P0.20 per liter rollback for kerosene,” the company said.
Petron said the adjustments would reflect the prices movements in the international oil market week-on-week.
Pilipinas Shell followed suit and raised its gasoline price by 80c while rolling back it price for diesel.
On Nov. 12, the oil distributors also raised the price of gasoline by P0.85 per liter but rolled back the prices of diesel by P0.15 per liter and kerosene by P0.10 per liter.
On Nov. 3 and 5, most of the oil companies implemented a price cut of P0.10 per liter of gasoline, P0.25 per liter of diesel and P0.10 per liter of kerosene.
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy has described as baseless its inclusion in the complaint filed by the Laban Konsyumer Inc. (LKI) with the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) alleging the price-fixing and collusion among 16 oil companies.
“We find the complaint of LKI President, Atty. Victorio Mario Dimagiba unmeritorious by accusing the Department of colluding with the oil companies by pointing to the pricing formula posted on the DOE website, as having facilitated said unacceptable illegal activities,” the department said.
Despite this, the department said, it welcomed LKI’s call for the PCC to look into claims of price-fixing and collusion.
It said the pricing formula in question, created by the then Energy Regulatory Board, had been on the department’s website since 2010. The ERB is one of the earlier predecessors of the DOE which was created in 1992. The board was responsible for all regulatory and adjudicatory functions pertaining to the energy sector.
“The posting is made in the interest of transparency. The formula is not being prescribed nor dictated by the DOE to the downstream oil industry in any way,” the agency said.
The price regulation of the oil industry was removed due to the passage of Republic Act 8479, or the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998.
“With the ERB formula having been utilized by the Board in the performance of its functions over the course of 11 years, the DOE deemed it fit to adopt said pricing formula among all other alternatives due to its historical reliability,” the department said.
“We have explicitly indicated on our website that the Oil Deregulation Law does not prescribe any specific pricing formula, as the market is expected to set the prices. This was followed by a statement reminding industry players to adhere to the fundamental principle of fair prices, as provided under the Oil Deregulation Law.”