It can be guesstimated that the total additional profits generated by the oil firms from overpricing gasoline and diesel is about P142.50 million a day. Of this amount, P17.10 million went to government in the form of the 12 percent value-added tax (VAT).
By BENJIE OLIVEROS
Giant oil companies, banks and investment houses have invented other blatant ways of pushing up oil prices, aside from monopoly pricing and speculative trading in oil futures.
By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com MANILA — The impending transport strike was not discussed in the recent dialogue with President Aquino, but San Mateo said Aquino has “diplomatically” threatened them against pushing through with the strike, as the president reiterated the LTFRB’s “reminder” to drivers that they are franchise holders with responsibility to ply their routes.…
By MARYA SALAMAT
“It is well within the capacity of the Big Three oil companies to implement a significant rollback as their profits have steadily increased in recent years. It is simply revolting for us poor people to see the Big Three’s profits soar as oil prices rise unabated while we suffer from poverty and hunger.” – KMU
By ARNOLD PADILLA
Malacañang is threatening to reimpose an oil price control if oil companies will not follow the conditions outlined by Mrs. Arroyo. Government, however, has given up the high ground with its lifting of EO 839 and continued adherence to the discredited deregulation policy.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Despite its limitations, the oil-price caps have irked Big Business and their think tanks and they have been lobbying to have it lifted. Fearing EO 839 could set a dangerous precedent to its business, Shell even filed a case in court against Arroyo’s order. But consumers and critics say that if Arroyo is really sincere in protecting consumers, she should use her power to have the Oil Deregulation Law repealed.
By ARNOLD PADILLA
To a certain degree, Executive Order 839 questioned the lies long peddled by the oil companies and staunch defenders of neoliberalism about neoliberal free market economics. If left unchallenged, EO 839 could become a precedent in policy making: that the government, in the name of public good and welfare, could take decisive action against abusive corporations.
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Analysis Bulatlat.com MANILA — When President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Executive Order No. 839 on October 23 ordering oil companies to roll back pump prices in areas affected by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng to October 15 levels, the Big Three — Petron, Caltex, and Shell — warned of supply shortages and negative effects…
By ARNOLD PADILLA
While it is supposed to be based on the Oil Deregulation Law, the executive order mandating the recent price rollback in effect puts into question the wisdom of oil deregulation. Moreover, the oil companies have found a way to offset whatever “losses” they would incur in Luzon due to the EO: by overpricing in the Visayas and Mindanao.
By MARYA SALAMAT
While the government bears down on small businesses and producers, warning them against profiteering in the wake of typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, it has allowed Shell, Caltex and Petron to increase oil prices at will.
By ARNOLD PADILLA
No matter how oil firms deny the allegations that they are overcharging the consumers, the widespread public perception that oil companies are abusive and profit-hungry will remain. This will be the case as long as the oil industry is deregulated and oil companies are allowed to automatically increase their prices and at the same time not compelled to publicly divulge how they compute their price adjustments.