MANILA, Philippines — The head executive of Eastern Petroleum Philippines Wednesday defended its increase in fuel prices, an adjustment that was later picked up by bigger oil companies.
Fernando Martinez, Eastern’s chief executive officer (CEO), said he wanted to address criticisms coming from some sectors saying that their price hike announcement Monday was an “insensitive” move since it fell on the same day as the nationwide reopening of school classes.
“World (oil) prices do not distinguish. We’re just a dot in the map of world demand,” the official stressed.
Martinez explained that fuel price adjustments for this week were determined by the movements in world oil prices during the previous week. Even the Department of Energy (DoE) justified the latest price hike, noting the recent increases in the international prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene.
Martinez’s company was the first to announce a price hike this week, doing so just before noon on Monday.
Effective Tuesday, Eastern raised its gasoline prices by P0.45 per liter and diesel and kerosene by P0.85 per liter. The company, considered a “small player” in the industry, has 40 retail stations in the country.
This developed as the creation of a national strategic petroleum reserve that seeks to secure country’s oil supply during crisis and emergency has been pushed in Congress.
LPGMA party-list Rep. Arnel Ty pressed on the need for the Philippines to establish an emergency reserve supply of finished petroleum products to secure the country's requirements estimated at the equivalent of 300,000 barrels of oil per day.
"This is consistent with the mandate of the Philippine National Oil Corporation (PNOC) to provide and maintain an adequate and stable supply of crude oil and finished petroleum products for the domestic requirement," he said.
Ty filed House Bill 4526 which also encourages fellow Southeast Asian countries to ink emergency oil-sharing agreements and to build extra stockpiles
