📷: IBON Foundation | FB
Oil companies posted an estimated ₱46.5 billion in windfall profits in March, or about ₱1.5 billion per day, according to IBON Foundation.
The research group said the gains came at the expense of some 21.1 million poor, low-income, and middle-income Filipino families already burdened by rising living costs even before the recent oil shocks.
IBON stressed that the surge in profits underscores the widening gap between corporate earnings and household struggles, with fuel price hikes compounding inflationary pressures on food, transport, and essential goods.
The group urged government regulators to scrutinize the industry’s pricing practices and consider measures to protect consumers from excessive profiteering.
At the same time, Energy Secretary Sharon Garin announced Monday that oil firms are now mandated to comply with minimum and maximum limits on price adjustments, following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s signing of Executive Order No. 110 declaring a state of national energy emergency.
“Because of that declaration, it triggered the additional powers from government to prescribe the price. We are not capping the price itself, but we are capping the adjustments,” Garin said in a press briefing.
She explained that the Department of Energy (DOE) will now enforce both rollback minimums and increase maximums to ensure uniform compliance.
Several oil companies confirmed that effective Tuesday, April 21, 2026, diesel prices will be cut by ₱24.94 per liter, gasoline by ₱3.41, and kerosene by ₱2.00.
Garin stressed that other firms must follow suit: “If the rollback is ₱24.94, then it must be equal or more. It cannot be less.” Conversely, she added, any increase must not exceed the DOE’s prescribed ceiling.
Marcos Jr. earlier urged oil companies to implement the rollback in full and without delay, emphasizing the need to ease the burden on Filipino households amid the expected major cut in pump prices. # (ZIA LUNA)
