Economic Issue

No Stopping Oil Price Hikes - DOE By Cheryl Arcibal (The Philippine Star) Updated March 15, 2012 09:32 AM

MANILA, Philippines - The government on Thursday reiterated that it would be unable to stop oil firms from implementing oil price hikes in the country.

In a television interview, Zenaida Monsada, director of the Oil Industry Management Bureau of the Department of Energy, said  that oil prices in the country are influenced by fuel prices in the international market.

"The oil supply has been disrupted because of the uprisings in the Middle East and Africa. Our oil industry is deregulated. What we can do in the government is to ensure that oil companies do not increase their prices excessively," Monsada said. Since the start of the year, Monsada said, oil firms have implemented eight rounds of price hikes and two rounds of rollback.

Monsada also said that the Philippines would be unable to influence the fuel prices in the international market as the country consumes some 300,000 barrels of oil a day, while the global demand is 90 million barrels a day.

"We just buy from the market, we can't do anything about it," Monsada said.

The activist group Bayan has  led the protest actions against oil price hikes.

Bayan and other people's organizations, including the Koalisyon ng Makabayang Manggawa at Mamamayan, held protest actions to coincide with the World Consumer Rights Day.

"It has no concrete and thoroughgoing plan to address the impact of rising petroleum price. Consumers are fed up with this government’s callousness," said Renator Reyes Jr., Bayan secretary general.

Source: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=787407&publicationSubCategoryId=63

Reaction:

               It is a heartbreaking issue in the Philippines because people who need oil for a living, like jeepney and taxi drivers, for instance, will have to work doubly hard to earn a decent income for their families with unabated diesel price hikes. They pay rent for these vehicles which is already high enough, and also need to fill it up with gas after using it, which continues to escalade. I think these are the reasons why most public vehicle drivers are recklessly driving. Basically, they need to have as many passengers as possible to earn enough for the day, cause if they dont, their earnings would just be enough for the gas and the rent. If the oil price hike wont stop, there is no chance for these drivers to survive financially.

               This issue doesn't only affect those drivers, it affects everyone. When oil prices rise, there is always a chance that the cost of basic goods and commodities may also be possibly affected. Also, because of these hikes, people engage themselves into protests and rallies which can result into injuries and can shed bad light to our government. In my opinion, it is not the governments fault why the oil price keeps on rising because we don't have supplies of our own to satisfy the demands of the people. We only buy our oil from another country. If they sell their oil in a higher price, we cant do anything about it. It is not our resource, its theirs. And many people don't seem to understand that fact.

               I think that protests and rallies are useless and immature. They are just wasting their time and energy in these activities. They cant bring down oil prices by opposing our government. Like I said, we are all affected in this issue, even the people who works in the government. Why can't they just study on how the market works? Why oil price keeps on inceasing? Rather than doing rallies which won't change a thing. In my opinion, all we can do is hope that the oil sellers will decrease their price on oil.