CEBU CITY – The Department of Energy (DOE) has encouraged private vehicle owners to conserve fuel by taking the public transport as hikes in prices of fuels continue due to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Lawyer Russ Mark Gamallo, DOE-Visayas director,
said there is no other way to escape the increases in fuel prices except to
initiate energy conservation measures while oil prices remain unstable due to
the conflict.
“The very least that we can do for now is to be
mindful of our lifestyle. If we don’t have something important to drive our
car, let’s skip it. To conserve energy, we can use public transportation,”
Gamallo told the Philippine News Agency.
He also assured the public of the DOE's continuous
monitoring of the situation and provides ample information regarding the
movement of oil prices in the world market.
Gamallo said the gasoline stations in Cebu
province, randomly inspected by the Visayas field office monitoring team, sell
their fuel and liquefied petroleum products at reasonable prices.
“DOE cannot set the prices of fuel, you know that.
What we can do is monitor unreasonable increases. But so far, we have not
monitored any oil firm in Cebu. Besides, we talk to the oil companies to listen
to their justification of their increase vis-à-vis the estimates from the DOE,”
he said.
Gamallo said the high price of diesel is due to the
higher demand as compared to gasoline. He said oil companies in the country are
experiencing a tight supply of diesel due to the continuing sanctions on some
countries in South America and the Middle East, and the war between Russia and
Ukraine that affect suppliers from Asia.
Although the Philippines is not directly importing
crude oil from Russia, Gamallo said such countries have been the source of
suppliers from South Korea, Japan, and China that export their petroleum and
petroleum products to the country.(John Rey Saavedra)
