Home 
Barely had the ink dried on the executive order signed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo lifting the oil price freeze in Luzon when gasoline stations there raised their fuel prices by more than P1. The public?s disgust is no surprise.
Gasoline station owners said they wanted to recoup losses sustained from having to accommodate the Palace?s demand to ease the pressure on Luzon which got battered by three back-to-back storms.
Fuel price increases were driven up by smaller players and naturally the Big Three would only be too happy to oblige.
This begs the question how much would gasoline stations increase the price of fuel products before the year ends?
If they have a semblance of a conscience, the current fuel price increases would stay well over till next year.
For the Cebu transport sector, at least one operator said they would seek a P1 hike in fare if the fuel prices breaches the P40 per liter ceiling. They, along with other transport groups, are monitoring the situation closely and the likelihood of a P1 increase depends on how fast the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB-7) approves the transport sector?s petition for a fare increase.
As much as Cebuanos gripe and worry about the real possibility of a P9 minimum jeepney fare rate before 2009 is over, this development only showed the need to push for significant measures aimed at offsetting the fuel price increases.
For Cebu, that means heeding the transport sector?s call for a series of depots to be built in the province in order to make the fuel prices more in line with thos e in Luzon and Mindanao.
The presence of fuel depots in the two island regions was cited to explain why Cebu has higher fuel prices.
It looks all th more valid now, the transport sector?s observation that Cebu is being milked for revenues by the oil players in the country. But while the petition of the Province of Cebu and local business leaders slowly navigates the red tape in the Department of Energy (DOE), motorists and commuters would do well do well to resort to cost saving measures of their own to help extend their budget especially during the holidays.
What happened to the proposal by transport groups to set up their own fuel stations? There?s been no movement toward that end. It?s a shame since this could help ease the trauma caused by rising fuel prices.
These proposals are doable. If the Palace somehow managed to implement a fuel price freeze?even if Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes fumbled in announcing that fuel shortage by the end of the month?then they along with Congress can set up safety nets to cushion the public from the impact of global fuel prices.
