UNDOC: Freeze price
of fuel in Negros, too
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Former National Economic and Development Authority chief Ralph Recto yesterday said government should prevent oil firms from making consumers in the Visayas and Mindanao bear the brunt of the temporary freeze in oil prices in the calamity-hit areas of Luzon.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently signed Executive Order 839, imposing a ceiling on fuel prices in Luzon because of the recent calamities.

A price freeze that was initially imposed on basic commodities nationwide following the typhoons that hit Luzon has also been lifted in non-calamity hit areas such as Negros Occidental, Trade and Industry provincial head Rebecca Rascon said.

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia yesterday said has reiterated the appeal to Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes for his intervention in prices of fuel products in Bacolod City that are higher than in Manila and other cities in Mindanao.

Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco had earlier also issued his objection to such price disparities.

In his letter to Reyes dated Sept. 17, 2009, Leonardia said that based on a comparative study on fuel product prices in Bacolod, Manila and other cities in Mindanao conducted by the city's Energy Task Force, prices of gasoline XCS/Gold and unleaded/extra were lower in Manila, Davao, Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities than those of the same product in Bacolod.

No hurt feelings.

That was what Rep. Mark Cojuangco (Pangasinan, 5 th District) said last night about Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero's quitting the Nationalist People's Coalition.

“We respect his wanting to take a different path,” he said.

The congressman, who is the son of NPC founder and business tycoon Eduardo Cojuangco, told the DAILY STAR he sought an audience with Escudero yesterday afternoon.