Palace ‘cold’ to Mikey push for oil price freeze

Malacañang is not keen on ordering a freeze on prices of oil products amid the effects of the El Niño phenomenon, even if the proposal came from presidential son Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo. Deputy presidential spokesperson Charito Planas said in a radio interview Monday that the pricing of oil products is basically up to oil-exporting countries to determine. "Ang nagdidikta ng oil price ay ang OPEC, ang bayan na may oil. Sila ang nagdi-dictate ng presyo. Ang bayan sa buong mundo walang magawa kundi sumunod kung bababa at tataas (It is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that determines oil prices. They dictate the prices, and the rest of the world cannot do much but go along)," Planas said in an interview on dwIZ radio. Last weekend, Mikey urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to order the freeze of prices of oil products similar to the executive order (EO) she issued last year when tropical cyclones "Ondoy" (Ketsana) and "Pepeng" (Parma) devastated large parts of the country. He said a presidential order on the freeze of oil-product prices might be in order and would be a welcome development as it would defeat the callousness and the insensitivity of oil firms. The young Arroyo had recommended to his mother last year to freeze oil prices in calamity-stricken areas badly hit by the killer cyclones. President Arroyo issued Executive Order 839 on Oct. 23 last year, directing all oil firms to freeze the prices of petroleum products throughout Luzon. The President lifted EO 839 on Nov. 16, 2009. But in this case, Planas said oil prices are basically a game of businessmen in the oil industry. "Yan ay decision ng bayan na may langis (It is a decision left to countries exporting oil)," she said. The young Arroyo had said his recommendation then was the result of a dialogue he held among the House committee on energy, which he chairs, and the Departments of Trade and Industry, Energy, and Justice. The National Disaster Coordinating Council had said the damage of El Niño had already amounted to P8.5 billion. — RSJ, GMANews.TV