Bayan Muna Executive Vice President Carlos Isagani Zarate today welcomed and lauded the Supreme Court’s decision affirming the Department of Energy’s (DOE) authority to require the unbundling of oil prices, a move that was strongly opposed by oil companies.
“This is a bold step forward for accountability and to make these oil companies, particularly the big ones, transparent on how these almost non-stop all price hikes resulted to windfall profits, while, our consumers are now overburdened not only by so much taxes but also of high prices of basic goods,” said Zarate, the former House Deputy Minority Leader in the 18th Congress who spearheaded the call and the filing of legislative measures for the unbundling of oil prices.
With the SC decision, Zarate now challenged the House leadership to fast track the passage of House Bill 3004, also known as the Unbundling of Fuel Prices Bill, which Bayan Muna Partylist originally filed in the 18th Congress.
Zarate emphasized the need for transparency in oil pricing, especially now when every peso counts for economically burdened consumers.
“Congress should fast track House Bill 3004 so that consumers, the public, would finally be made aware of how oil pricing is done and the scheme employed by oil companies to earn more profits. This is all in the spirit of transparency since every peso means so much more, especially to ordinary already economically burdened consumers,” Zarate stated.
Zarate also called on the DOE to be proactive in supporting the bill, strongly urging it to recommend to the president its certification as an urgent legislative measure.
“With the Supreme Court decision, we strongly urge the DOE to be more proactive and support this bill. They can even lobby to the president to classify this legislation as urgent along with other bills that would stop or at least mitigate the severe economic effects of the now becoming regular oil price hikes,” he added.
Prior to this landmark Court decision, Zarate highlighted the lack of transparency in the actual expenses of oil companies, which include refining costs, storage, transportation, salaries, and advertising costs.
“Except for the international price of oil, nobody realy ⁸knows the actual expenses of oil companies in selling fuel. The oil companies must inform DOE and the public of this actual cost, so that we will know if they are overpricing or not,” he said.
He pointed out that the DOE has the power to demand reports under Section 15 (a) of RA 8479, which grants the DOE authority to gather and compile information about the oil industry.
“For more than 25 years after the oil deregulation law, the government does not know the actual cost of fuel and is therefore not capable of determining predatory pricing or overpricing. This is the tragic folly of deregulation. For decades, consumers could have overpaid billions of pesos in overpriced fuel. Worse, these also led to price increases of other products using fuel. It’s about time we put an end to this,” Zarate emphasized.
“There is nothing confidential about the actual cost of producing oil. We have to put a stop to this abuse of oil companies that have made life more difficult for the poor who have to pay more for fuel, for transport fare, and for LPG just because there is no transparency in the oil industry. This bill is most timely now in the time of crisis, that every centavo and peso count in the shrinking budget of consumers,” Zarate concluded. #
