Now, it can be told. After months of taking increasingly bold actions, the provincial board of Bohol Committee-of-the-Whole chaired by Board Member Godofreda O. Tirol swung into another bolder step of unmasking those behind the root cause of the exorbitant  petroleum products prices only imposed in Bohol.  One of these bold actions of the provincial government is the plan to set up its own pump stations to literally compete with the commercial dealers in a bid to bring down high prices of petroleum products that provincial Board Member Atty. Tomas D. Abapo, Jr. earlier has proposed. But the collective decision of the committee to launch more inquiries in aid of legislation was greeted with more complexity how pricing works, of course, in favor of the companies or the local dealers for profit.

 At the expense of its local dealers when the oil prices here soar to an unmatched level in the region, the so-called “Big 3 --- the Caltex, Petron and Shell in Manila --- are the ones who dictate how the prices of gasoline and diesel move in Bohol, according to the testimonies of the local dealers. But the brunt of suffering remains with the end consumers and points to the newly-found blame is expectedly to seriously impact and produce a chain-reaction to other products and goods that are produced utilizing petroleum derivatives. And there are glaring indications that came out during the committee hearing on Friday that local dealers may be adopting a “more conciliatory” pricing system, that is, when the so-called “white” gas dealers play the role of a “game changer” if they first make the first move of lowering their petroleum prices, the Committee found out. It is possible that the emergence of a more conciliatory stance may only be a temporary, just to appease the consumers and the officials. Lawmakers and local gas dealers should at least explore whether a serious intervention of “independent players” lowering first their pump price tag can be pursued. BM Tirol, who is authorized by Vice-Gov. Concepcion O. Lim to preside over the entire duration of the Committee-of-the-Whole's investigations, still showed her conviction that in indeed the Big 3 allegedly “deliberately” manipulated the pricing system in Bohol.

 “White oil products”

Unlike “black market” of, say, dollars, oil supply for “white” gas stations, there are 26 of them, in Bohol are actually smuggled supply of gasoline and diesel particularly, local dealers told the committee. But they are short of divulging to the committee the source of the oil supply in the form of petroleum finished products for “white” gas stations peddling the alleged contraband. Local deaders added that supply for “white” dealers in the province do not procure their stock from the Shell-operated depot along Graham avenue here. And the supply of contraband is in the form of a “finished products,” meaning the crude form of petroleum does not pass through the processing or refinery in Batangas and other factories, the local dealers said. There are about 26 players operating “white” gas pump stations though they're unnamed, local dealers said, who said they identify them (“white gas operators).

 Mr. Butch Abaya, Mr. Marjo Lim, representing his father, Leo Lim operating Caltex and Cortes Vice-Mayor IvenLim representing his father operator of Shell in Cortes town, George Lim of Caltex J.A. Clarin, Ma. ShielaRubillar of Seaoil-Talibon, Gerald Renolan of Filoil, Marilou Maboloc of Seaoil-Ubay, Evelyn Du of CPG-Petron and Gina Cag-ang of CPG Petron are among the local dealers of diesel, gasoline and other oil products who attended the said committee hearing. Aside from Tirol and Abapo, the committee was represented by BMs Atty. Abeleon R. Damalerio, Atty. Dionisio D. Balite, Elpidio M. Jala, Gerry Garcia, Atty. Benjie Arcamo and Jovanna Jumamoy.

 Transport Costs

In the course of the committee hearing, Vice-Mayor Lim later bared that one reason that might cause the soaring of the oil products in the province is that the cost of transportation is high. He said that the existing Shell-operated-depot cannot accommodate the bigger volume that the transporter -- big barge -- is carrying for Bohol supply. Thus, the cost is too high which is apparently passed on to the consumers. But he did not categorically that the high costs of transportation is really passed on to the consumers. Compared to pump stations in Ubay town, which offer lower prices, the Seaoil revealed it procure its own supply of petroleum from still Cebu but not the from the depot here. Seaoil has its own transportation that bring supply from Cebu direct to Ubay, Marilou Maboloc of Seaoil-Ubay said. Filoil, on the other hand, gets its supply via tanker trucks on board on a roll-on-roll-off vessel from Cebu and berth on Tubigon port. But it's still dependent on the pricing of the Big 3 in Bohol, Gerald Renolan of Filoil said. He said that Filoil still relies on the “dictate” of pricing from its main office in Manila.

 Pump station operators admitted that consumers here are less compared to Cebu, but they failed to relate compare the volume of consumption in smaller provinces like Siquijor of Camiguin where there are fewer consumers and population. As to the plan of the provincial government to put its own pump stations, Manju Lim said “OK ra, it's welcome.” But other dealers/local pump station operators just kept mum about the said proposal.

 6-month Supply consumed

Data gathered by the committee show that a total of 12,833,000 liters of Premium (R91) in terms of volume of distribution are recorded as supply for Bohol for the period January-June 2014, Tirol said. The bulk of these is supplied by Petron with a total of 5,913,000 liters for the same period. This is followed by Chevron's 4,916,000 liters and Shell's 2,004,000 liters. As to diesel, Bohol got a total of 17,789,000 liters during the same period, data showed. The biggest volume is supplied by Petron with a total of 7,923,000 liters; Chevron --- 5,304,000 liters; and Shell --- 4,571,000. The Special (R95) gasoline totaled to 32,000 liters and Kerosene --- 140,000 liters for the same period, Tirol said. (RVO)