House speaker Nograles has proposed an inquiry behind recent fuel prices hikes. Congress wants to open the books of oil companies. Why? Because more and more people are actually getting angrier by the day due to these weekend hikes.
And who does’nt?
And surely, millions are cursing government for this. That’s why the palace authorized Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes to go on the propaganda route, telling people that government has nothing to do with it and it’s these oil companies which are to blame for this. Tell that to the Marines, Mr. Secretary! Reyes is being used to divert public attention away from the culpability of government in this issue.
If Gloria can use her “moral suasion” to convince oil companies for the second time to lower their prices by 1.50 per liter, surely, you can convince them not to implement a 6 pesos per liter hike of diesel pump prices come this weekend.
These “moral suasion” thing is more political than anything else. Gloria just wants to get some credit from the on-going economic crunch to the detriment of all of us.
Gloria risk a revolt from the masses should these giant oil companies continue fooling us into believing that they need to recover from their losses. If they can do that lowering just by being asked to, then, surely, those prices are indeed overpriced by at least 12 pesos per liter!
What this incident also shows that government needs to repeal the oil deregulation law (or momentarily suspend it) and get back control of this precious commodity in the name of the people. Political will is needed at this point.
What is more evident is this–the reason why government allows these oil companies to raise prices is the billions worth of VAT collections they amass from this. Imagine, the BSP reporting a 115 billion peso collection from VAT. And it’s not even the fourth quarter yet.
It’s time to be a hero, Mrs. Arroyo. Unleash the full force of the law against these oil companies and get hold of the reins of fuel and energy in the name of the people.
July 22nd, 2008 @ Ricky Rivera
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