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By LITO RULONA,
Correspondent

The City Council Committee on Ways and Means, Trade and Commerce will summon local oil players in the city including local petroleum dealers association to shed light on the alleged predatory pricing of oil products in Mindanao.

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City Councilor George Goking, chairman of the Ways and Means and the Committee on Trade and Industry said he will exercise its investigative powers in aid of legislation, and seek an explanation from local petroleum dealers why petroleum products in Cagayan de Oro and other parts of Mindanao stayed at very low price despite another round of oil price hike which was implemented on Monday.

He said the average gasoline prices for most regions in Visayas and Luzon are now peg at P37 to P40 pesos per liter. In contrast, gasoline prices in Mindanao have fallen by as much as P8 to P12 pesos per liter to around P30 since the first week of September.

“This is very surprising development and has benefited our local drivers specially in public utility sectors to experienced such lower prices of gasoline and other petroleum products compared to Visayas and Luzon. Mas dako ang ginansiya sa mga atong mga igsoon nga driver sa pagka-karon,” he added.

Goking said oil price drop may have been beneficial to consumers, but there should be an explanation provided by oil firms and Department of Energy (DOE) that would answer raised questions from the transport sector.

During the meeting, Local Price Coordinating Council (LPCC) chairman Atty. Egay Uy raised questions that with the current development, oil prices can be subjected to manipulation by the market players.

“The House of Congress has already initiated an investigation but the residents in Cagayan de Oro must know asking the oil companies operating in Mindanao to explain reports of “unusual price reductions” in gasoline products since last month,” he said.

He said he noticed that despite Cagayan de Oro was identified as among those cities in Mindanao that is experiencing the reduction of prices of the petroleum products, other municipalities like Balingasag, Manolo Fortich and the rest of municipalities in Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental is experiencing more reduced prices.

“If we have P31 per liter of gasoline, other municipality is cheaper by P3 to P5 per liter. People from various provinces deserve a full and transparent explanation from the oil companies as to the formula in computing higher fuel prices in their area,” he stressed.

Goking said they would summon top three petroleum players like Shell, Caltex and Petron which include the marginalized petroleum products like sea-oil, blue energy, chevron, phoenix and others.

“If prices can be lowered in Mindanao, then, then there is no reason why prices in other parts of the country cannot be lowered. We will also find if there were indeed cartel operations of oil companies in the country,” he said.

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