Senator Mar Roxas last week said prices of unleaded gasoline sold locally should be cut by as much as P10 per liter parallel to the rate of decline in the cost of crude oil in the international market.
Roxas, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Trade and Commerce also reiterated that the price of diesel sold in gas stations should be at P25 per liter at most.
"I am irked with the way they are taking advantage of our people. These firms are leeches sucking the blood of our people. The price of crude oil has gone down in the international market but they are so slow in doing the same," he said.
"I made some calculations on the cost of unleaded gasoline. It is now sold at P35 per liter. In my calculation, it should be cut by P10 more," he added.
By his own calculation, Roxas said the cost of unleaded gasoline should range from P22.40 to P24.53 per liter. He explained that Dubai crude averaged $49.84/bbl in November (as of Nov. 28), dropping 62 percent from the $131/bbl in July. When converted according to the respective peso-dollar rates (P49.18 to $1 average as of Nov. 28), this means a 58.4 percent drop to P15.42 per liter.
Roxas said if the Department of Energy (DOE) did its job and compelled the country’s three biggest oil companies to show their financial books, then it would discover that these firms have been raking in big money and are taking advantage of the consumers.
He urged the DOE to stop tolerating the oil companies’ indifference to calls for them to bare their financial records.
"The DOE should stop defending the oil companies’ pricing. Why is it defending it anyway? The DOE should be protecting us. Its role is to protect the interest of the people," he stressed.
"Why is the DOE not running after these companies? Does the Senate really have to do the job of the DOE? That’s why we have been prodding the DOE because it is not doing its job properly," he added. /MP
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