Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Thursday said he is open to a review of the Oil Deregulation Law should President Duterte calls Congress to a special session
“I'm open to reviewing the Oil Deregulation Law to improve transparency among industry players and assess the benefits to our consumers,” Gatchalian said in a statement.
“Considering that this is a 24 year-old law, the review can be helpful in optimizing the oil industry,” said Gatchalian, who is seeking re-election in the May 2022 elections.
Palace officials on Wednesday, called on Congress to review the Oil Deregulation Law, particularly on the provisions on unbundling the price, the inclusion of the minimum inventory requirements in the law, as well as giving the government intervention powers to intervene when there is a surge in the prices of oil products.
Malacañang made the call as tensions between Ukraine and Russia escalates.
But Gatchalian, who heads the Senate Committeee on Energy, said the basic problem why the Philippines is constantly experiencing oil price hikes is due to its dependence on oil imports.
The senator said it is high-time the government ramps up its programs on renewable energy to enable consumers to lessen their dependence on oil and gas.
“However, a fundamental problem on why we are experiencing high prices of oil is because of our over dependence on imported oil. We import almost 100 percent of our oil requirements,” Gatchalian said.
“As long as we import oil, we will be susceptible to global oil shocks that we have absolutely no control of,” he added.
“As a way forward, we need to explore new domestic oil and gas reserves, transition to renewable energy as well as electric vehicles in the medium to long-term,” he stressed.