MANILA Philippine President Joseph Estrada Wednesday rejected proposals to buy back stocks of Petron Corporation, the country's largest oil refiner, noting the move would scare off much needed foreign investors. Estrada said it would not be good for the country's image if his administration recovers the government shares of Petron that were sold five years ago under a privatization program of then president Fidel Ramos. "We will be ridiculed in the international business community if we do that," Estrada told a Manila radio station.

"They will say we always flip-flop in our policies. They will say we don't have integrity." While the president ruled out a buy-back, Estrada stressed he still does not understand why the previous administration sold the government shares in Petron, which was still profitable. ``There were many other government-owned corporations which were losing then, why sell the one that was making profit," he said.

The government sold 40 percent of its shares in Petron to Saudi Aramco in 1994 and kept 40 percent. The balance is held by the public and is freely traded in the stock market. Legislators now want the government to regain control of Petron so that the oil company can be used to influence oil prices, which have been increasing since the downstream industry was completely deregulated early last year.

Since April, Petron and two other major oil refiners - Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation and Caltex Philippines Inc. - have already raised their prices four times by a total of 64 centavos (0.0164 dollars) per liter. The increases have triggered widespread protests as well as demands for higher transport fares and wages. On Tuesday, militant labor and transport groups called on Filipino consumers to boycott Petron, Shell and Caltex and instead buy fuel and other petroleum products from eight new oil companies "to teach the greedy cartel a lesson".

(DPA)