BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan is pushing for the amendment of the controversial Oil Deregulation Law to include a provision that will provide a ceiling on the profit of oil companies on the oil products being sold in the country to prevent the small and big oil players from taking advantage of the deregulation to profit at the expense of the ordinary Filipino people.
The local chief executive pointed out that by providing for a profit ceiling on oil prices, small and big oil players will be barred from dictating their income from the sale of oil products which is now significantly affecting the economic condition of urban and rural areas in the country and more immortally the living condition of the people.
Oil prices in the country are dictated by world market forces that is why even President Rodrigo Duterte admitted that he cannot do anything more to help lower the prevailing oil prices in the country, thus, the ultimate remedy is to work out the amendment of the Oil Deregulation Law and include a provision that will put under government control the profit of oil companies from the sale of oil products,” Domogan stressed.
He explained that the prevailing situation on the country’s oil industry is that it is being dictated by world market forces, particularly the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC), that is why no official can singlehandedly solve the problem of skyrocketing oil prices being charged to consumers by the small and big oil players.
According to him, when concerned government agencies and the local government invited oil retailers in the city for a consultation to ascertain the root cause of the skyrocketing prices of oil products in the city, it was discovered that it is the absence of the provision in the law that puts under control the price ceiling on oil prices that is why small and big oil players can dictate the profit that they will derive from the oil products being sold in the market.
Domogan asserted that there is no recourse but for the introduction of the needed amendments to the Oil Deregulation Law to fix the supposed profit of oil companies so that there will be a control on the oil price increases being effected by oil companies to prevent oil from becoming unaffordable in the country.
He admitted that the prevailing oil prices in the city is almost P10 higher per litter compared to the prevailing oil prices in the lowlands and that the same could be traced to the profit margin of oil companies that is why there is a need for government to intervene on the matter by working on the amendment of the Oil Deregulation Law that will spell out everything on the oil industry, including the profit ceiling of companies to prevent the oil products from becoming a valuable item in the market.
He called on the public not to be misled into believing that a single individual was instrumental in working out the reduction of oil prices in the city way back in June when the same was the collective effort of concerned government agencies and the local government that initiated the conduct of consultations with the retailers in the different parts of the city.
He emphasized the oil is considered a prime commodity that must be placed under the control of government regulating agencies to prevent the unnecessary increase in prices that tend to affect the overall economy.
By Dexter A. See
