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MILITANT
legislators have filed a resolution asking the House of
Representatives to conduct a full-blown investigation
into the oil companies’ alleged overpricing,
profiteering, transfer pricing, and other forms of
cartel operations in the country.
House
Resolution 677 said that “the House Committee on Trade
and Industry has the mandate and golden opportunity to
help the suffering people by conducting an investigation
on Pilipinas Shell, Chevron Philippines [formerly
Caltex] and Petron that have increased pump prices 22
times this year.”
“For the
June 2007-to-June 2008 period, average pump prices of
unleaded gasoline and diesel have increased by 47
percent and 52 percent, respectively. This has jacked up
prices of food, rice and public transport fares that are
heightening the sufferings of the people,” said
Party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna.
Ocampo
said Royal Dutch Shell, the mother company of Pilipinas
Shell Petroleum Corp., posted a net profit of $27.6
billion in 2007, making it the second most profitable
company in the world next to oil giant Exxon Mobil. That
year Pilipinas Shell posted profits worth P4.12 billion.
Chevron Corp., mother unit of Chevron Philippines,
posted a net profit of $18.7 billion in 2007, 9 percent
higher than a year earlier, making it the eighth most
profitable company in the world. Its local unit posted
P2.75 billion in profits.
He said
Petron’s former partner, Saudi Aramco, posted profits of
around $15 million in 2007. Petron earlier posted a
31-percent dip in net income to P658 million in the
first quarter.
“Domestic profits do not fully reflect the oil
monopolies’ overall profits because the transnational
oil companies’ local subsidiaries are merely booking
their profits abroad through the deceitful practice of
transfer pricing to deflect criticisms of their massive
windfall profits,” Ocampo said.
Ocampo
also cited findings of the militant think tank IBON
Foundation that disputed the three top oil companies’
claim of “underrecoveries.”
It said
oil companies “continue to gain billions of profits and
that local pump prices of petroleum products are
overpriced by P12 per liter.”
IBON
estimates that as much as 47 percent to 54 percent of
the pump price of petroleum products represents windfall
profits of the oil companies.
“Since
Republic Act 8479, or the oil-deregulation law, was
enacted a decade ago, the country has experienced
unabated increases in oil prices, contrary to the law’s
supposed intent to lower oil prices and break up the
local oil cartel. Since the start of oil deregulation
during the Ramos administration in 1996, pump prices of
unleaded gas have increased by 492 percent and prices of
diesel have increased by 607 percent, with oil companies
acting in unison as a cartel. The latest incident of a
P3 increase in the price of diesel immediately followed
by a P1.50 rollback upon the President’s appeal reveals
the arbitrary and whimsical manner by which oil prices
are being set in the country,” Ocampo said.
He said
that since the government, particularly Malacañang, and
the justice and energy departments failed to provide the
public a well-informed explanation of the oil-price
movements in the country, the House should make its move
to immediately address this issue by conducting a
full-blown investigation of the issue.
Besides
Ocampo, Party-list Reps. Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna;
Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis; and Luzviminda Ilagan and
Liza Maza of Gabriela coauthored the resolution. |
