Local oil companies are raking in profits as oil prices skyrocketed during the past two months. Since January this year, diesel prices have risen by more than ₱18 per liter and gasoline by more than ₱20 per liter. An 11-kilo LPG tank is now worth ₱100 more. As companies accumulate profits, the Duterte regime’s revenue collection also increased due to layers of taxes it has imposed on oil.
All these are shouldered by the Filipino people who are already burdened by high prices of goods and reduced wages and income due to the pandemic. In Ibon Foundation’s estimates, since September, jeepney drivers need to shell out an additional ₱97.50 for 11 liters of diesel per day. Farmers consuming 190 liters of diesel per hectare per crop season now need to spend ₱1,653 more.
According to Pamalakaya, a total of ₱720 per week for gasoline was added to the fisherfolk’s expenses. To save money, they are forced to cut down their hours at sea to four to six from the usual eight hours.
Prices of basic commodities and services are bound to rise in the next months. There will be additional costs for transportation, food, fuel and others. People are forced to take on this burden amid nonexistent subsidies and aid for people with insufficient incomes and are jobless. (Last September, the rate of unemployment once again rose to 8.9%, mainly due to losses in agriculture. The rate of inflation is expected to rise above 5% in the next months. Food and beverage prices rose fastest, with rates already up 5.6% in September.)
Meanwhile, multibillionaire owners of Petron, Shell Philippines, Chevron, Phoenix and other oil companies are celebrating. They have been able to accumulate profits due to the oil industry deregulation law.
For the first half of the year alone, big bureaucrat Ramon Ang-owned Petron reported a net profit of ₱3.87 billion. Shell Philippines reported ₱2.2 billion. The smaller company Phoenix, owned by crony Dennis Uy, profited ₱252 million during the same period.
The bureaucrat-capitalist regime also earned higher revenues from the price increases. According to Ibon’s studies, the government earns ₱6.72 per liter of diesel, ₱6.33 per liter of gasoline and ₱33 from each 11-kilo LPG tank in the form of excise tax alone. If all taxes on oil products were suspended, the price of diesel can be reduced up to ₱17.50 o 25% per liter while gasoline prices can be reduced up to ₱11.35 o 22.7% per liter. (The calculations were based on ₱50/liter for diesel and ₱70/liter for gasoline.)
Continuing oil price increases were met with various protests since the last week of October in Metro Manila, Cebu, Panay and other places. The protesters called for the immediate lowering of oil prices, junking of the oil deregulation law and renationalization of Petron.
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