Romualdez to meet oil industry execs over price increases

Speaker Martin Romualdez of Leyte will meet oil industry executives to discuss the series of oil price hikes.

In a statement, the Speaker of the House said his meeting will include officials from both the large and small oil companies.

“The government is not insensitive to the sentiments of our people. We all know that once the prices of oil rise, everything else shoots up – except the wages and salaries of our workers,” Romualdez added.

“It is common knowledge that oil companies still sell supplies bought at lower prices before the costs of crude oil in the world market increased. Baka pwede nating mapakiusapan sila na wag na munang magtaas ng presyo (Maybe, we can appeal to them not to raise prices for the time being),” he added.

Romualdez also cited the Oil Deregulation Law as one of the factors that contributed to rising oil prices.

“[The Oil Deregulation Law] ties our hands. We don’t want to impose on them (oil firms), but we also want to know if they can help alleviate our suffering,” he said.

“We want to hear from them, what they can do to help in this kind of situation, and if indeed they are willing to help at all because these oil price hikes have been a burden. It would be better if we help each other soften the impact of these oil price increases,” he added. — DVM, GMA Integrated News