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say that if Arroyo is really sincere in protecting consumers, she should use her power to have the Oil Deregulation Law repealed.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 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 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.
By ARNOLD PADILLA Bulatlat MANILA — It would be interesting to watch how the Oil Deregulation Law Task Force will resolve the complaint against the Big Three filed by Cebuano public officials and businessmen. The said task force has already subpoenaed the executives of Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell and Chevron Philippines to answer charges of…
BY IBON FOUNDATION Posted by Bulatlat As oil companies hike prices anew, a study by research group IBON Foundation reveals that local pump prices have been rising by more than the price of crude oil. An analysis of monthly price data from January 1999 to March 2009 shows that local pump prices have apparently been…
In response to the growing clamor for the scrapping of RA 8479 or the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998, the House Oversight committee is, instead, pushing for its amendment. These developments should make consumers wary because these blunt calls to junk RA 8479 and to establish an entirely new set of measures to…
The oil companies and Malacañang together squeeze about P328.98 million ($6,783,092 at the current exchange rate of $1=P48.50) in unjust collections everyday from Filipino consumers. This brazen act of exploitation is downright condemnable, especially today that millions of workers face unprecedented job scarcity and poverty. BY ARNOLD PADILLA Contributor Bulatlat Pump prices continued its downtrend…
The “proper” implementation of RA 8479 or even amendments to it will not address the problem [of overpricing]. It does not have any provision on overpricing because deregulation assumes that the market will set the “fair” price. Government could not penalize the oil firms for overpricing because they do not violate any law. BY ARNOLD…
The urgency for real transparency in the domestic oil industry remains despite the recent rollback in oil prices, and vital information needs to be disclosed for the public to be assured that the monopolized domestic oil industry is not profiting at their expense. BY IBON FOUNDATION Posted by (Bulatlat.com) Vol. VIII, No. 32, September 14-20,…
Hundreds of government employees, under the public sector union federation Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage) trooped to the Petron gas station along Philcoa last Aug. 8 to protest the continued implementation of the 12-percent value-added tax (VAT) on oil and the Downstream Oil Industry Regulation Law and to demand the…