The Manila Times
SENATE President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson on Sunday called for decisive and even “extreme” government intervention to protect Filipinos from relentless oil price spikes brought by the Middle East war. Lacson said the government should also disclose actions against “early” profiteers. He said that any relief from a potential excise tax suspension “may not be felt until June — if at all.” He also raised the need to ensure the proper use of some P230 billion “in potential funds” from the 2025 and 2026 national budgets to help sectors hit hardest by the oil crisis triggered by the United States-Israel war on Iran. These include almost P200 billion in unobligated and unreleased appropriations in the 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA), and P31 billion in the 2025 GAA. Lacson said priority should be given to the most-affected sectors, like transport, saying assisting it will also help commuters from the middle- and low-income brackets. “We have laws that can be implemented now that there is a state of national energy emergency. What is more important is how and when it will implement these,” Lacson said in Filipino in a radio interview. He said that under Republic Act (RA) 8479 or the Oil Industry Deregulation Act, in times of national emergency and when the public interest so requires, the Department of Energy (DOE) “can temporarily take over or direct the operation of any person or entity engaged in the industry.” RA 12120, or the Philippine Natural Gas Industry Development Act, also allows a similar government takeover in the natural gas industry in times of national emergency. Lacson said RA 9511, or the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) Franchise Act, allows the president to temporarily take over and operate the transmission system and/or subtransmission systems of NGCP, or suspend its operation in the interest of public safety, security and welfare. “These are extreme measures, but government needs to be on their toes to monitor the situation. And if it sees abuses in the sectors concerned, the government needs to step in, at least to serve as a warning against abuses,” he said. “The public must also remain vigilant,” he said. Up to now, the government has yet to update the public on how gasoline stations and dealers that were caught selling fuel at high prices without proper authorization were penalized. “The public deserves feedback on what happened to the offenders that were caught in plain sight raising fuel prices without authorization from the DOE or Energy Regulatory Commission,” Lacson said. He pointed out that RA 12316, which grants the president emergency powers to deal with the oil crisis, requires a one-month monitoring period before fuel excise taxes can be suspended. During the bill’s interpellation, Lacson had pushed to shorten the one-month window to just two weeks so the public could receive price relief much faster. He said that with the law taking effect on April 12, monitoring can start only on that day — and May 12 is the earliest that the Development Budget Coordination Committee can meet to recommend a possible suspension of the excise tax.
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