Fuel price rollback fails to stem anti-EVAT sentiments

MANILA, Philippines - A fuel price rollback implemented last Sunday failed to calm down motorists and commuters who had been alarmed just the day before by yet another price hike. In fact, on Monday, various groups staged protests in several areas – all of them asking the government to scrap the extended value-added tax (EVAT) on oil and to reconsider its policy of deregulating the oil industry. Some members of House of Representatives have also started to target the so-called Big Three oil firms - Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Petron Corp., and Chevron Philippines – on suspicion of forming a cartel, raising prices despite big profits. On the other hand, the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo continued to rely on higher oil and power prices to boost EVAT collection. Auditing the Big Three Deputy Minority Leader Roilo Golez, for one, filed House Resolution 659, calling for an audit of the Big Three. “In view of the unquestionable impact on the national economy of the price of oil set by these oil companies, a public audit of the financial operations of these oil companies is imperative,” Golez said. Another lawmaker, Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas, raised the possibility of investigating oil refiners, two of which have earned a staggering P70 billion in net profits for the last 10 years. Consumers are now extremely vulnerable to potential pricing abuses,” Gullas said. Scrap EVAT on oil In Makati, Mayor Jejomar Binay, who's also president of the United Opposition (UNO), proposed a "Suspend EVAT" signature drive, for which his government will set up signature centers all over the city. "Insisting on retaining the EVAT on oil shows gross insensitivity to the plight of the poor and the middle class," Binay said in a statement posted in the city official website. In the morning in the same city, members of Gabriela, a militant women's group, threw old slippers at the office of the Pilipinas Shell In Cebu City, in the Central Visayas region, militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) also launched a campaign to gather at least 10,000 signatures demanding the same things. They will then send the signatures to the Bayan party list House representative. At the same time, they massed at the Department of Energy regional office to protest the continuing increases of fuel prices. Profiteering probe In a related development, the joint Department of Energy (DoE) and the Department of Justice (DoJ) task force has started its investigation into the alleged P12 per liter markup by profiteering major oil firms. In a press briefing shortly after the meeting called by DoE with oil companies Monday, DOJ Undersecretary Jose Vicente Salazar said the task force has started collating and evaluating data on the alleged profiteering. "We (task force) are precisely doing that. We have started our investigation (on the reasonableness of oil prices) and we have started collating data," Salazar said, noting that the “role of the task force is to make sure that the interest of the consumers are protected." - GMANews.TV