House Speaker Martin Romualdez (Speaker’s office)

Nine straight weeks of pump fuel price hikes mean it's time for House Speaker Martin Romualdez to have a friendly chat with local oil companies. 

“It is common knowledge that oil companies still sell supplies bought at lower prices before the costs of crude oil in the world market increased. Baka pwede nating mapakiusapan sila na wag na munang magtaas ng presyo,” the Speaker said in a statement Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 12. 

(Maybe we can make a plea for them not to increase prices for the meantime.)

“The government is not insensitive to the sentiments of our people, especially since this carries a domino effect on all products in the market,” Romualdez said. “We all know that once the prices of oil rise, everything else shoots up – except the wages and salaries of our workers.” 

Romualdez said he wants to talk to both "big and small" oil firms in order to "find a solution or compromise by giving motorists a respite" from the successive pump price hikes. 

He noted that the fuel being sold in the market at present are old stocks or have stayed for months in the inventories or depot of oil companies. 

“This is one of our problems, the Oil Deregulation Law that contributed to the high prices of petroleum. It ties our hands,” the congressman from Leyte's 1st district said. 

“We don’t want to impose on them (oil firms), but we also want to know if they can help alleviate our suffering," he noted. 

“We want to hear from them what can they do to help in this kind of situation, and if indeed they are willing to help at all because these oil price hikes have been a burden to our kababayans," added Romualdez. 

The House leader hinted at a review of pending bills amending the Oil Deregulation Law as a necessary step towards bringing down the prices of oil.