Fuel prices up anew; release of cash aid urged

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MANILA, Philippines — Oil companies raised local pump prices anew this week, but the upward adjustment was lower than the previous weeks.

On Tuesday, the price of diesel rose by P1.65 per liter while those of gasoline and kerosene increased by 50 centavos per liter and 10 centavos per liter, respectively. Kerosene is used by many Filipinos as fuel for cooking and heating.

This is the fourth straight week that oil companies have jacked up fuel prices. Prior to this week’s price hikes, the accumulative increases stand at P29.50 per liter for gasoline, P44.25 per liter for diesel, and P39.65 per liter for kerosene, based on the Department of Energy’s weekly monitoring.

In Metro Manila, the prices of gasoline range from P75.95 per liter to P98.90 per liter. Diesel retails from P81.55 per liter to P98 per liter while kerosene is sold from P89.64 per liter to P99.04 per liter as of June 23.

As this developed, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian urged the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board to speed up the distribution of fuel subsidies to the targeted beneficiaries in the public transport sector.

Gatchalian made the call on Monday after he revealed plans for a third tranche of the fuel subsidy program to provide economic relief to the transport sector reeling from the effects of the protracted oil price hikes.

“So many of our public transport drivers have stopped plying their routes and lost their livelihood. The key here is for the government to speed up the distribution of cash aid to them because time is of the essence,” he said.

Gatchalian, outgoing chair of the Senate committee on energy, disclosed in a consultative meeting last week that he plans to file a bill that would give another round of Pantawid Pasada Program amounting to P3,000 per month for the next five months.

But he lamented that the distribution of the first tranche of the fuel subsidy for public utility vehicle drivers and operators, which was supposed to have been completed within the second week of May, was hit by delays due to a lack of a database of the intended beneficiaries.

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