MANILA—Giving consumers yet another reason to frown, oil firms raised prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene by another P1 a liter this weekend.Initiating the price hike was Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Total (Philippines) Corp. and Flying V at 12:01 a.m. yesterday, followed by Petron Corp., Chevron Philippines Inc. and Eastern Petroleum Corp. at 6 a.m. Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc. was to implement similar adjustments at 12:01 a.m. today. The latest pump price adjustments brought prices of premium unleaded gasoline to between P47.17 and P51.65, diesel to between P39.91 and P44, and kerosene to between P44.30 and P49.80 a liter, inclusive of the 12-percent valued-added tax. Since the beginning of the year, gasoline, diesel and kerosene prices have risen 10 times for a total of P6 a liter. With the latest adjustment in the prices of fuel, Cebu City Councilor Sylvan Jakosalem urged the public to implement some measures to save on fuel. One of these could be carpooling—neighbors could share a vehicle in going to the malls and schools. Jakosalem, City Council committee chairman on transportation, said he would suggest to Mayor Tomas Osmeña to come up with incentive programs for vehicle owners who will adopt carpooling. Another practical advice is to plan the trip ahead to avoid going out of the house several times a day. “I stay more in the house than out now,” he added. He said some vehicle owners could even take the public utility jeepneys (PUJs). Jakosalem also urged the City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) to identify areas along the road which could be expropriated and converted into PUJ pocket lanes in order to ease traffic and in the end, help motorist save on fuel. According to data from the Department of Energy (DOE), the regional benchmark Dubai crude surged to a May average of $111.85 a barrel from last month's average of $103.41 a barrel. Dubai crude hit a record-high price of $116.35 a barrel on May 8. The price of unleaded gasoline based on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) benchmark for refined petroleum products soared to $122.37 a barrel in the May 1-9 period from $118.08 a barrel last month. MOPS-based diesel skyrocketed to an average of $146.34 a barrel in the first nine days of May from the April average of $141.98 a barrel. In a recent presentation to oil industry stakeholders, Shell country chair Edgar Chua said local oil firms had yet to recover their fuel procurement costs over the past weeks, with under-recoveries now reaching as much as P6-P7 a liter. “On the basis of today's prices, both international and at local pumps, selling prices are around P7 a liter lower than the cost. The public can expect more adjustments over the next few weeks, primarily for diesel,” he said. “The P7 a liter that has to be recovered assumes (an exchange rate) of P41.50 to a dollar. If the foreign exchange continues to deteriorate, we'll have to add that on top of the adjustments,” he added.
World oil prices continued to climb these past days due to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' reluctance to hike production. The weak dollar and supply disruptions in Nigeria also contributed to the price escalation. In Cebu, jeepney drivers are still waiting for the approval of their petition to adjust the minimum fare to P7.50 from the present P6. But the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board in Central Visayas (LTFRB-7) offered to give a subsidy of P2 per liter to help the drivers while the agency was looking into their petition to increase the fare. The assurance was enough for the Cebu Integrated Transport Service Cooperative (Citrasco) to pull out from the nationwide transport strike scheduled on Monday and Tuesday. Ryan Benjamin Yu, Citrasco vice chairman, said all jeepney drivers would be issued coupons which they would present to the gasoline stations so they would be entitled to a discount of P2 per liter of diesel. “If you gas up and pay P86 for two liters, you can save P4,” said Yu. “But we are planning to include gasoline in the subsidy in all public utilities including bus operators.” He said the owners of the gas stations would then ask reimbursement from the government for the discount given to the drivers. Yu will meet with LTFRB officials in Central Visayas on Monday to finalize the guidelines for the subsidy. Yu, however, admitted that giving subsidy to drivers would only be a temporary solution to the problem.
“Mahurot ra man gyud ni gihapon (The coupons would eventually run out.) It is better to come up with a plan that could provide long term assistance to the transport sectors, ” said Yu. Richard Cabucos, president of the Metro Cebu Taxi Operators Association (MCTOA), said taxi operators would only ask an increase in the flagdown rate if the price for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will reach P35/liter. As of now, LPG costs P31 per liter. Some 90 percent of the about 6,000 taxi units in Metro Cebu run on LPG. The remaining 10 percent are using either gasoline or diesel. Cabucos said LPG was only P24 per liter when they started converting the engines of their units to run on LPG. He, however, refused to say how much they would ask if the price of LPG would reach P35 per liter. Inquirer with Correspondents Jhunnex Napallacan and Hayde Quiñanola | 
