Want lower fuel prices? Take to Twitter, Facebook

Congress would be inclined to return the oil industry to a regulatory regime–albeit on a limited basis–as long as the middle class joins militant groups in protesting the predatory pricing of petroleum companies, even if only in social media like Facebook and Twitter.

With neophytes comprising more than a third of the 16th Congress, Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe said proposals to undo the deregulation of the oil industry 13 years ago had better odds of being approved in the lower house than during the previous Congress.

“Most House members are fed up with the greed of the oil companies that unscrupulously raise prices at every opportunity. This has to stop and this Congress is open to changing the Oil Deregulation Law,’’ said Batocabe at the Ugnayan sa Batasan media forum.

But he said Congress needed a “push” from consumers by creating the critical mass needed to change the “cartel-like’’ operations of the oil companies.

“There is a clamor to rein in the greed of the oil companies but this is mostly coming from one sector–the militant groups–and other sectors such as the middle class should join the protests,’’ said Batocabe.

He suggested that middle-class consumers pour out their feelings through social media such as Facebook and Twitter which have become a potent tool for effecting sweeping changes in society.

Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello said Congress was partly to blame for the oil companies’ predatory behavior as it ignored efforts in the last four Congresses to revise the law despite evidence that letting the transnational companies dictate market prices without state interference was hurting consumers.

“We are at the mercy of the oil companies as studies have shown their pricing system is controlled by the transnational companies. We have to bring them back under state regulation by setting prices at least once a month or once every other month. That way families, companies and the government can plan ahead,” said Bello.

Bello noted that profiteering by the oil companies had gotten worse, especially in the last two years. “They anticipate oil prices will go down so they raise prices to maximize profits during the interim period. Their pricing system is so untransparent that only so-called experts can understand it,’’ he said.

Bello and Batocabe said a broad-based public clamor could ensure the passage of bills (authored by Bayan Muna party-list Representatives Teodoro Casiño and Neri Colmenares and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez) pushing for amendments to the Oil Deregulation Law.

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said the recent hike in fuel prices by Pilipinas Shell just one day after it complied with the Department of Energy’s order to cut prices showed how the oil companies were “quick to the draw’’ when raising prices.

Evardone said Shell’s price hike was suspicious considering that oil prices were expected to stabilize and go back to normal with the expected easing of tensions in Libya, one of the world’s biggest oil suppliers.

Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay said the government should hit back at Shell’s abusive ways by taking legal action against the Anglo-Dutch firm for allegedly cheating the government of P1.58 billion in taxes from July last year with the misdeclaration of its oil imports.

This was on top of the P7.3 billion in back taxes that Shell allegedly had not paid for oil imports from 2004 to 2008.

Port of Batangas officials were also credited with discovering that catalytic cracked gasoline and light catalytic cracked gasoline were misdeclared as blending components which are exempt from taxes.

Finding the Batangas port’s recommendation correct, then Commissioner Joel Tan Torres reversed an earlier ruling by Deputy Commissioner Jose Mario Buñag exempting Shell from higher tax payments.