Press Release
January 13, 2016

Marcos To DTI: Explain High Price Of Goods Despite Oil Price Cuts

Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. today called on the Department of Trade and Industry to explain why the prices of basic commodities remain high despite the big rollback in the prices of petroleum products.

Marcos made the statement after the latest Pulse Asia survey showed that inflation remains to be the top concern and the most urgent national issue for majority of Filipinos spanning all socio-economic groups.

"Just last Monday, oil companies announced another round of an oil price rollback which put diesel prices in the range between P20.40 and P23.80 per liter while gasoline prices ranged from P33.30 to P40.75 per liter."

In January 2014, based on the Energy Department's price monitoring report, retail prices of petroleum products ranged highest from P50.30 per liter to P55.45 per liter for gasoline and P42.10 per liter to P46.50 per liter for diesel.

"There is a tremendously huge decrease in the prices of oil especially diesel which affects the transportation and production costs of many of the manufacturing and retail sectors, but we have yet to see a substantial reduction in the prices of commodities. The DTI should look at this and explain to us," Marcos recommended.

"According to the National Statistics Authority, food inflation or the cost of food in the Philippines increased by 1.70 percent in December of 2015 over the same month in the previous year."

"Consumer Price Index CPI in the country increased to 142.60 Index Points in December from 142.30 Index Points in November of 2015."

Marcos asserted that despite the imposition of Suggested Retail Price (SRP) tags in basic commodities and other goods, prices are still not commensurate to the reduced oil prices.

"There should be more transparency on how our goods are priced and it should be the DTI that should take the lead in this because inflation is still the main concern of our countrymen. The glaring reality is that they are still having a hard time coping up with the high prices of commodities," Marcos concluded.

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