LAWMAKERS yesterday pressed the Department of Energy (DOE) to do something in the face of the unmitigated increase in the prices of petroleum products, saying the department is clearly not doing enough to protect the public.
Magsasaka party-list Rep. Argel Cabatbat said the latest rollback in the prices of diesel and kerosene is not enough to arrest the “agricultural crisis” as fuel costs have an indirect effect on the prices of farm inputs while Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte urged the DOE to take more decisive measures, including establishing its long-planned national oil reserve.
The administration congressmen said that while consumers can heave a small sigh of relief as oil companies announce a rollback in kerosene and diesel prices this week, it will not ease the burden on consumers, especially on Filipino farmers and fishermen.
Kerosene prices are going down by P0.30 per liter and diesel prices by P0.35 per liter but gasoline prices will have another hefty increase of P1.15 per liter and LPG will be more expensive by around P3 per kilogram.
As of November 2, gasoline prices have gone up by P21.95 per liter, diesel by P18.10 per liter and kerosene by P15.74. Likewise, LPG prices have gone up steadily throughout 2021.
“Barya lang ‘yan kung tutuusin. At the end of the day, talo pa rin ang consumers (The price rollback is a pittance. At the end of the day, consumers are still at the losing end),” Cabatbat said. “We reiterate our call to our colleagues in government to quickly and decisively arrest this agricultural crisis.”
He called on the government to give more subsidies to drivers and speed up the release of financial aid for farmers and fishermen “because the government has to act now.”
Villafuerte said the DOE has to establish a national oil reserve to ensure adequate supply of fuel in the domestic market since the country has no oil stockpile to offset the impact on petroleum prices in the global market of low crude oil production among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Plus (Opec+).
The lawmaker has been asking the DOE for almost two years now to push through with its plan to set up its own oil stockpile in the face of the volatile supply and prices of petroleum products, backing the view of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi that the country needs strategic oil reserves so the government could be part of the fuel supply chain and have the capability to ease the impact of global market volatilities on consumers by ensuring a stable domestic fuel supply.
Last June, he reiterated his call after observing that the vaccine-driven economic recovery in the United States (US) and Europe had started to ease travel restrictions and increase demand anew for fuel.
Oil companies have been implementing price adjustments continuously, citing as reason the insufficient supply of crude oil versus swelling demand in the world market.
According to reports, the OPEC+ had rejected the requests of the US, India, China and European countries to provide additional supply over and above the 400,000 barrels per day to its combined output that the organization earlier committed.
Worsening the current situation is the sharp drop in refinery production by 67 percent year-on-year to 1,284 million liters (ML) in the first half after Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. shut down its oil refining operations.
Under Executive Order (EO) No. 134 series of 2022 and DOE Circular 2003-01-001, oil companies and bulk suppliers are required to maintain a sufficient minimum inventory of petroleum.
The signing in the second quarter by the DOE and the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on a review and updating of the 2002 Philippine National Oil Contingency Plan should clear the way for the creation and operation of a Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) Program.
This MOA seeks, among others, to gather data on the domestic supply of, and demand for, fuel products in the past five years; projected demand for the next 20 years; the status of state-run and privately-owned storage facilities for crude oil and finished petroleum products; and a review of existing polices on supply for normal demand and for emergency situations resulting from any international or local supply disruption.
