PETRON Corp. said on Thursday it terminated contracts of eight dealers the company accused of selling as Petron products substandard fuel allegedly obtained from illegal sources.
Petron accused the following with illegal dumping: Nestor Orfanel of Catanauan, Quezon; Faustino D. Bulaga of San Miguel, Bohol; Connie Figueroa of Bani, Pangasinan; Paul Galicia of New Bataan, Compostela Valley; Alma Yap of Central Caraga, Davao Oriental; Roberto Soncuya of Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat; Hanny Copia of General Santos City; and Corazon Agatep of the Agatep Group of Bantay, Ilocos Sur.
Kelvyn John M. Que of Bani, Pangasinan, who supplied illegal fuel to Figueroa, is also facing criminal charges, according to Petron. Petron said it also filed similar complaints against Nancy Chan of Tarlac City, Tarlac, and Constante Oandasan and wife Marissa of Magsingal, Ilocos Sur.
According to Petron, these people represent eight service stations that represent less than 1 percent of the company’s total service-station network of 2,200.
Petron said it has pulled out all its equipment and branding materials, and ceased deliveries to the eight dealer-owned stations to stop the respondents from cheating the public and curb this illegal practice.
Petron claims it has evidence these dealers were getting fuels from illegal sources and then passing them off to unwitting consumers as Petron products. This practice, also called dumping, is a form of unfair competition punishable under the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, or Republic Act (RA) 8293, according to the company.
If found guilty, each respondent faces imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of up to P200,000 for violating Sections 168.2 and 168.3 of RA 8293, Petron said.
“Let this serve as a warning to those unscrupulous businessmen. We will not tolerate dumping in Petron stations,” the company said in a statement.
Since 2013, Petron has terminated the contracts of over 30 service-station dealers for alleged dumping activities.
The company said regular monitoring of all its service station pumps led to the discovery of the discrepancies in the respondents’ sales volumes versus fuel products bought from Petron.
All respondents were later subjected to surveillance, which proved deliveries from sources other than Petron were made.
Laboratory tests conducted on seized fuels also confirmed they do not meet Petron’s and the Department of Energy’s product specifications and standards.
“We have been investing in state-of-the-art equipment and systems to further improve our monitoring of dealers’ activities, therefore allowing us to easily detect irregularities. We also have a special task force that regularly monitors our stations to protect against unscrupulous activities,” Petron said.
The company said dumping is a direct result of oil smuggling, which dupes consumers into buying cheaper and inferior fuel products. Smuggling also results in an uneven playing field in the oil industry as smugglers can easily peddle fuels several pesos lower than legitimate players.
Industry estimates showed the country loses at least P30 billion to P40 billion annually in foregone taxes because of dumping.