CEBU CITY — Members of the Cebu City Council on Wednesday expressed frustrations over what they claim as dissatisfactory, the explanations given by representatives of the country’s major oil companies on why prices of petroleum in Cebu is higher than in Manila and Mindanao.

The City Council invited the officials of Petron Corporation, Chevron Philippines, Inc. and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation during its regular session on Wednesday to explain said discrepancy in the price of oil.

Councilor Roberto Cabarrubias whose privilege speech three weeks ago prompted the council to invite the fuel industry players, said he was not satisfied with the explanations of Shell and Chevron.

What representatives of the Big 3 told the Council was basically the same explanation they made when the Cebu Provincial Government asked them to explain the same issue early last year.

Vice Mayor Michael Rama who presided over the session called on the fuel firms to heed their conscience and exercise social responsibility.

For his part, Councilor Arsenio Pacaña, told the fuel firm officials that the high prices of petroleum products would trigger an increase in the prices of fares and basic commodities and thus, causing “more suffering from the people.”

Lawyer Jose Jesus Laurel, Vice President for Legal and External Affairs of Petron Corporation, said the oil firm was “compelled to reduce prices of their petroleum products in Metro Manila and other areas in Luzon, otherwise nobody would buy” their fuel.

Early this year, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia filed charges against the three major oil companies operating in the country at the DoE-DoJ Task Force on Oil Deregulation.