Fuel prices went up 50% from June 2007 - IBON

MANILA, Philippines - Prices of regular gasoline and diesel have gone up by an average of 50 percent from June 2007, militant think tank IBON FOundation disclosed Wednesday. In a statement, IBON said this trend highlighted the failure of oil deregulation in bringing down prices of petroleum products. "Between June 2007 and June 2008, average pump prices of unleaded gasoline and diesel have increased by 47 percent and 52 percent, respectively," it said. Diesel prices alone increased by 607 percent since the start of deregulation in 1996, while pump prices of unleaded gas increased by 492 percent, it added. IBON said oil deregulation was supposed to ensure affordable and accessible fuel by breaking up the local oil cartel and allowing "market forces" to determine the real price of oil. But instead, it said deregulation only gave Shell, Petron and Chevron (formerly Caltex), more room for speculation and to dictate prices and price hikes. IBON said as much as 47 percent to 54 percent of the pump price of petroleum products represents windfall profits of the oil firms. "An effective way to break up the monopoly control of the oil firms over the local downstream oil sector and ensure affordable and accessible oil products is to revoke the oil deregulation law and give the government regulatory authority over the oil industry," it said. - GMANews.TV