CITY Council’s committee on Trade and Commerce chair Councilor George Goking yesterday said it’s already time for Congress to look at the Oil Deregulation Law, following the ongoing weekly increase in the prices of fuel with the global supplies hit by the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
According to him, based on industry figures as of June 2022, gasoline prices have already hit as high as P82 per liter while diesel prices reached P85 per liter.
Earlier, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said gasoline prices may reach P100 per liter depending on the increase in oil prices in the world market.
“What is life and the economy after the price of oil reached P100.00? It equals economic trouble,” he said.
Goking said that the prices of petroleum products have been increasing since the start of the year, and the situation was somewhat worsened by Russia's war on Ukraine.
“If the national government has a serious call to prevent oil prices from increasing and to reach P100 per liter, it's now the time to review the oil deregulation law,” said Goking.
Republic Act No. 8479, also known as the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998, removed government control on the pricing, exportation, and importation of petroleum products, allowing market forces to dictate oil prices.
“The Tuesday’s increase and the weekly oil price increases are generally to increase inflation and reduce economic growth not only in our city but the entire country,” he said.
In terms of inflation, Goking said “oil prices directly affect the prices of goods made with petroleum products.”
Goking said Congress can still hold a special session to discuss the law, to restore government control of the oil industry.
Goking recalled that the President (Duterte) himself mentioned that they might call for an emergency session for the Congress as there should be some legislation to address this looming problem.
He said that this is also the right time for President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr., to oblige the new Congress to review the country’s oil deregulation law to give the government the power to intervene in the event of a spike in oil prices.
Goking who also the City Council's committee on Ways and Means Chair said the government should also create of a strategic petroleum reserve “during periods of abnormally low prices.”
“We have to reactivate the OPSF or the Oil Price Stabilization Fund,” he said adding that it was an early attempt to stabilize domestic prices of petroleum products.
All of these would help ensure adequate supply at affordable domestic prices during periods of high world market prices, according to Goking.
He said the Department of Energy (DOE) should also continue asking the oil industry to give discounts to consumers.
The government should focus on the distribution of fuel subsidies and reliefs to individuals who are really in need, particularly in the transport, farming, and fishing sectors.
Meanwhile, with the latest findings released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the sustainability think-tank Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED) said pulling the brakes on fossil fuel expansion is imperative that climate actors from government and finance sectors need to hastily act on to keep the goal of limiting global temperature rise to no more than 1.5°C by the end of the century still possible.
Earlier, IPCC divulged the latest and most thorough scientific understanding of current and future manifestations of the climate crisis; dire economic, social, and physical impacts affecting most vulnerable communities and ecosystems; and disproportionate capacities for climate change adaptation globally.
CEED executive director Gerry Arances said the IPCC covers a gloomy picture of hunger and poverty for many populations, energy vulnerabilities, the wipe-out of entire ecosystems, and the death and displacement of millions yearly.
“All these are happening here and now, and are bound to get worse as climate actors, especially governments and financiers, continue to ignore the urgent need for radical reductions in the use of dirty energy,” said Arances.
He said the latest report is a warning that we need to end the age of fossil fuels far sooner than those backing the coal, gas, and other dirty industries care to admit.
“Fossil fuel-based development in Asia is no development at all, not when the well-being of people, environment, and economies is the price to pay,” said Arances.
According to Arances, Asia needs to abandon coal rapidly and for good while averting a looming gas lock-in, and that could only happen if no finances are fed into fossil fuel projects to get them running.
He added banks and other financiers, be it domestic or international, still supporting such projects are culprits to the suffering of Asian peoples.
The latest report also identifies the Philippines as among the countries that will continue to experience intensifying extreme weather, food insecurity, and ailing biodiversity, and in need of measures to improve power sector climate resilience as an economy reliant on foreign fossil fuel supply and therefore vulnerable to geopolitical shocks and disturbances.
However, the Department of Energy recently reported that nearly 90% of all new energy capacity they intend to add to the national mix in the next 5 years will still be from coal, gas, and oil.
“The Philippine government, with DOE at the helm, needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with a transition plan to get renewables supplying at least half of the power needed by our homes and industries by the end of this decade,” said Arances.
He even said this is the only clear solution to supply and price woes rampant in a fossil fuel-based energy sector, and the only responsible plan of action for government leaders to take if they are to prove that their pledge of service to climate-vulnerable Filipinos is not empty talk.”
