Gas prices to go up by P1 to P1.20 per liter this week

MANILA, Philippines — Prices of gasoline products might increase by P1 to P1.20 per liter this week, sources said, although calamity areas in the Visayas would likely be spared.

Excluding this week’s price hike, the year-to-date net increase for major fuel products stood at P0.14 per liter for gasoline and P1.93 per liter for diesel.

According to the Department of Energy (DOE), price freezes for gasoline and for diesel (both major imported fuel products) are voluntary.

Even so, various areas in the Visayas, including Leyte and Samar provinces, could be spared from price adjustments, similar to exemptions that oil firms implemented in Cebu and Bohol provinces in the aftermath of a recent earthquake, said Zenaida Y. Monsada, director of the DOE-Oil Industry Management Bureau.

President Aquino has declared a state of national calamity, allowing the government to impose a price freeze on basic necessities.

Kerosene and LPG, which are common household fuel for lighting and cooking, respectively, must be sold according to suggested retail prices.

Rationing is being implemented in fuel stations operating in the hardest-hit areas. Monsada said a person could buy up to two liters of fuel, while motorists could gas up to P500 worth of fuel per car.

Fuel supply was disrupted in typhoon-hit Leyte and Samar as fuel facilities were damaged, personnel were affected and roads were blocked by debris. The situation is expected to normalize before Christmas, according to the DOE.

Citing reports from oil firms, Monsada said 83 out of 196 fuel stations in Leyte and Samar were operating. This means that almost 65 percent of the Yolanda-hit areas now have fuel supply.

At the rate stations are reopening, fuel supply may normalize even before the power supply does, according to Monsada.

“The DOE called on oil firms to first  flood the market with supply at the stations so that demand will normalize and people will not have to buy from so-called bote-bote (per bottle) re-sellers who charge exorbitant prices,” Monsada said.