• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Local government units (LGUs) are urged to activate their respective Price Monitoring and Control Councils, amid rising prices of basic commodities, which are driven by the continuing increase in the prices of petroleum products.
Frank Carbon, co-chairman of the Energy and Power Committee of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), stressed the need for LGUs to take their own initiative and not wait for national agencies such as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Energy (DOE), noting their slow response.
Carbon believes that having a price monitoring control council can help prevent excessive increases in the prices of goods.
In response to the statement of Carbon, Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said he will confer with the DTI on the activation of such councils, to see if there is a need, adding that the concerned government agencies may have already done it.
I don’t think DTI is sleeping on their job, Lacson said, stressing that they have their own monitoring.
But if there is a need to do it at their own level, they will not hesitate to do so, the governor said.
Operators of fast craft vessels serving the Bacolod-Iloilo route and vice versa are likely to impose another fare increase after Holy Week, according to Carbon, who is also the executive officer of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
From a P70 fare hike two weeks ago, when diesel fuel prices reached P100 per liter, Carbon said fastcraft operators hinted at another increase of P20 to P30 after the Holy Week.
Anticipating that fuel prices would continue to stay beyond P100, operators reduced fuel consumption by cutting the number of daily round trips to three from Tuesdays to Sundays, while maintaining four trips on Mondays.
Travel time has also been adjusted, from the usual one hour trip to about one hour and 30 minutes, following a reduction of speed, which is aimed at conserving fuel, Carbon said.
Those measures have resulted in about 20 percent reduction in fuel consumption, he added.*
