• THERESA MAE DULMAN
The Bacolod city government has reported three to four branches of a major gasoline station to the Department of Energy (DOE) for failing to fully implement the mandated P16 per liter price rollback this week.
City administrator, Atty. Mark Steven Mayo, said Nov. 12 that the city’s Price Monitoring Team, under the City Treasurer’s Office, flagged the stations after the staff interviewed by the team openly admitted to missing the full reduction due to a computation error.
“For example, on gas, there is a rollback of supposedly around P16, and that gasoline station only reached P12, they fell short by P4. There was an investigation, there was verification, and eventually, we reported them,” he said.
Mayo explained that while staggered price reductions are permitted, the gas stations miscalculated their gradual adjustments and mistakenly assumed they had complied with the full P16/L rollback.
He said the city government can only prepare an incident report, based on its assessment and verification, and submit it to the DOE for appropriate action.
The Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod, meanwhile, approved a resolution authored by Councilor Caesar Distrito, urging the DOE, Department of Trade and Industry, City Price Monitoring Council, and relevant city offices to regularly inspect fuel stations, verify pump prices, and establish an accessible consumer complaint mechanism.
“We cannot allow consumers to be shortchanged. If oil companies announce a price rollback, gasoline stations must faithfully implement their announced reductions,” Distrito said in a phone patch Nov. 12.
The councilor clarified that while the measure does not regulate fuel prices under the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act, it ensures transparency, accountability, and compliance with publicly announced price rollbacks. | TMD
