The financial misery of Filipino motorists will continue this week, as prices at petroleum pumps will rise anew due to soaring prices in the world market and the depreciating value of the Philippine peso against the US dollar.
Based on cost adjustment advisories sent by the oil companies, the price of gasoline products will be on upswing of P1.05 per liter; while diesel prices will be increased by P1.20 per liter and kerosene will go up by P1.25 per liter effective Tuesday (February 8).
As of this writing, the industry players that already advised on their implementation of price hikes had been Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, Chevron, Cleanfuel, PetroGazz, Seaoil and PTT Philippines; while the rest of the industry players are anticipated to be matching their rival-firm’s pricing trends.
The weekly price adjustments at the pumps are anchored on cost swings of the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) indices, the pricing reference being employed by the players in the deregulated downstream oil industry.
Following this week’s price escalations, the aggregate increases for gasoline products since last month would already hover at P6.00 per liter; diesel at P8.40 per liter; and kerosene already summed up by P8.00 per liter.
This is already the sixth round of straight big-time hikes in oil prices that have been punishing the pockets of Filipino consumers; and would also soon be eroding their purchasing power given the spiraling effect of astronomical fuel prices to the cost of basic goods and services.
By the start of this week’s trading, international benchmark Brent crude was already flirting at the US$94 per barrel level -- raising probabilities then that global oil prices may really shoot up to US$100 per barrel as projected by some investment banks.
Despite the commitment of global oil producers that they will inject additional 400,000 barrels into market next month, this has not really done much to ease international prices especially with the lingering Ukraine-Russia tension.
Russia, in particular, is an ally-producer of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), hence, the political strife it is encumbered in has been adding to the geopolitical forces exerting upward pressure on global oil prices.
In the Philippines, consumers are already feeling the pinch of weekly big-time price hikes, but the government is not doing any aggressive move yet to suspend the excise taxes on oil products.
A six-month suspension of petroleum excise taxes under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act had been proposed, but this measure is still pending in Congress until now.