MANILA, Philippines—Motorists are in for a respite from the weekly fuel price hikes this weekend as the increases they have come to expect, and dread, will not happen—at least not at this time.

Independent oil firms Seaoil Philippines Inc., Flying V and Eastern Petroleum Corp. said they would not be hiking pump prices, mainly because international oil prices have been dropping the past several days.

“We’re looking at international prices. Since they are softening, there’s an opportunity for us not to increase [prices] this weekend,” Seaoil president Glenn Yu said in a telephone interview Thursday.

Quelling speculation the price hike freeze was only a prelude to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, Eastern Petroleum chair and chief executive Fernando Martinez said there was nothing political about the oil firms’ decision.

“We’re giving a respite to our customers. The price trend is downward now, but we still have to wait and see. There was no appeal from the President for us to do this,” he said.

Data from the Department of Energy showed the regional benchmark Dubai crude hit a July average of $134.67 a barrel from $127.82 in June.

The latest average was lower than the $137.02-a-barrel posted as of the end of last week.

The price of unleaded gasoline based on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) benchmark for refined petroleum products went down to an average of $139.59 a barrel in the period of July 1-24 from $140.30 a barrel last month.

As with crude, this was also lower than the July 1-17 average of $142.91 a barrel.

MOPS-based diesel climbed to an average of $172.74 a barrel in the first 24 days of the month from the June average of $169.36 a barrel—falling from the $175.73-a-barrel average registered in the first 17 days of the month.