Mindanao gas prices reach P60/liter

FILE PHOTO

DAVAO CITY—Prices of fuel in many Mindanao areas have reached P60 per liter, prompting militant lawmakers to demand an investigation and reforms in a law that deregulated the oil industry.

Gasoline costs up to P60 per liter in this city, General Santos City and Koronadal City, leaving many consumers asking why.

The escalating costs of fuel prompted the militant Makabayan bloc of party-list lawmakers in the House of Representatives to file in July a bill seeking to return control of what they said was the downstream oil industry to the government.

Bayan Muna Representatives Neri Colmenares and Carlos

Isagani Zarate, members of the Makabayan bloc, said they were hoping Congress would find time for the bill this year.

According to the militant lawmakers, the law that deregulated the oil industry “was passed on the wrong premise of fair and justifiable pricing.”

“But from the very beginning, it was bound to fail because it ignored monopoly pricing and cartel behavior,” Zarate said in a statement released by Bayan Muna.

“There has been less transparency in pricing. Oil companies have no accountability to the public anymore,” Zarate added.

He said in 2012 alone, oil prices have been raised more than 24 times and the reasons for the increases are not clear.

“It is high time the government take over,” Zarate said.

Colmenares said petroleum is a commodity that should not be left in the total control of the private sector.

The militant lawmakers also assailed what they said was blackmail being practiced by power firms.

Colmenares, in a phone interview, said some officials of power firms had been quoted as saying if consumers wanted a stable supply of electricity, they should be ready to pay.

Colmenares attributed these statements to Luis Miguel Aboitiz of the Aboitiz family who owns a network of power generating plants: “The biggest issue currently facing power generators is that if a lot of the peaking plants are not paid, then they might not have enough cash to pay for the fuel.”

“And if fuel suppliers refuse to deliver fuel to them in the next few weeks, if they lack the cash to pay for it, then those plants would not be able to generate power until they have cash to pay for their fuel.”

“This is clear blackmail,” said Colmenares.

The Department of Energy, said the lawmaker, should take the side of consumers and not give in to the blackmail.

He said the high cost of electricity was partly caused by the indiscriminate privatization of power generators by the government.

Facilities, like hydroelectric plants, should be kept in government control to keep rates down. The Electric Power Industry Reform Act, or Epira, mandates the sale of power plants owned by the government-run National Power Corp. to the private sector. Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao