No end in sight to fuel price hikes, Petron admits

MANILA, Philippines - With world prices of oil still rising, major oil player Petron Corp. admitted Tuesday there is still no end in sight to hikes in local pump prices in the coming weeks. In an interview on dzBB radio, Petron spokeswoman Virginia Ruivivar said that while they still have to recover some P3 per liter in May alone due to high world prices, noting that world prices of oil continue to go up this month. "Kami naman naghahabol ng underrecovery. Ngayon umaabot more than P3/liter. Hindi pa natin pinag-uusapan ang June, pinag-uusapan nating costs ang May (We're still trying to recover P3/liter, and that's just for May. We are not even talking about prices for June)," Ruivivar said in an interview on dzBB radio. Ruivivar said the only thing the oil firms can do is to advice consumers to conserve fuel. Rising costs of fuel have spawned several protest actions, including those to remove the expanded value-added tax (EVAT) from fuel, and to scrap the oil deregulation law. - GMANews.TV