A day after Executive Order 839 has been lifted by President Arroyo, independent oil players has taken the lead and started raising their pump prices Monday.

Unioil Petroleum, Flying V, Eastern Petroleum Corp , and Phoenix Petroleum were the first to fire the first salvo of increases. Unioil Petroleum increased by P1.50 per liter all its product, while Flying V raised its prices from P1.50 to P2 per liter, depending on “trading areas.”

Easter Petroleum implemented an increased of P2 per liter on its diesel and a P1.25 and P1.50 per liter increase on its gasoline and Kerosene respectively. Phoenix diesel price were up by P2 per liter and gasoline by P1.50.

It did not take long for the major oil companies to follow the lead of their smaller industry counterparts, raising their pump prices from P1.50 to P2 per liter across products effective at 12:01 a.m. Chevron Philippines, Petron Corporation and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum made their price adjustments close to midnight Tuesday.

Since oil companies are suppose to implement their price increases on a staggered basis, this only means that these increases are just a start, and there could be a series of price adjustments in the days to come.

Oil companies cut down prices of gasoline by P1.50 per liter and P1 per liter for diesel and kerosene. The cut-down price took effect at sundown Thursday.

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. initiated the rounds of reduction. Company vice president Roberto S. Kanapi said, “Shell will roll back prices of gasoline to its dealers to reflect the reduction in product costs.”

Petron Corp., on the other hand, have rolled back its prices citing “lower international prices” as the reason. Seaoil trimmed down its price “to reflect movements in international prices.”

Prevailing pump prices in Metro Manila, as an effect of the rollback, now range from P36.84 to P42.49 per liter for unleaded gasoline, and P27.15 to P33.03 for diesel.