Hike in oil prices due to monopoly: LPG-MA

Pryce Gases, Inc. chairman Salvador P. Escaño with Atty. Raul Villanueva, PGI legal council, explains the importance of the LPG-MA party-list in congress during a press conference at Pryce Plaza Hotel recently. - File Photo


A TOP official of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers Association (LPG-MA) has presented two major platforms of governance during the just-held press conference in Cagayan de Oro City once the LPG-MA will be able to get a seat in the House of Representatives.

Joyjoy Escaño, head of Pryce Gas and an LPG-MA nominee, said the party list 161 LPG-MA will wipe out the devastating monopoly in the LPG industry and that it will block all moves against the implementation of unreasonable hike in the prices of petroleum products.

Escaño said the presence of monopoly in the LPG industry had been adversely affecting poor households nationwide as the consumers are always at the losing end as they are forced to pay unreasonable high prices of petroleum products.
Saying that their demands are not even heard, Escaño said that it is the reason why party list 161 LPG-MA has decided to join the race for a seat in the House of Representatives.

In a statement, the LPG-MA said: “Most households prefer the lower-priced LPG of the small players.” It said: “A marked study will readily disclose that the LPG retail prices at the outlets of the Major Players are generally higher than those at the outlets of the Small Players by about 12 percent.”
The reason, it added: “Consumers understandably place a premium on price over packaging.”