Senatorial candidate Herbert “Bistek” Bautista on Thursday sought an inventory of public transportation in the country to include the number of public utility vehicles, operators, drivers and other transport franchise holders to ensure a more efficient distribution of financial aid meant to cushion the impact of surging oil prices.

“If we have a list of those, we would know how many people we can help in the transport sector,” Bautista said in a statement.

Bautista noted the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) already has a list of private and public utility vehicles.

“Even delivery trucks, there’s a list for those, they get franchises. School buses, tourist buses. There’s a list of those in LTFRB,” said Bautista, a former mayor who is now running for senator in the May 2022 elections.

He said an inventory would help facilitate the efficient distribution of subsidies that have been approved by President Duterte.

But he pointed out subsidies would just be short-term solutions to the ongoing volatility of oil prices caused mainly by the war in Ukraine and supply chain problems still arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.

He also said a P500 or P600 subsidy might bring temporary relief but a longer term solution, like putting a cap on prices by buying back the oil company Petron, would be ideal.

Bautista reiterated buying back Petron would be better so the government could compete with private oil suppliers when prices become unstable.

Earlier, the UniTeam senatorial candidate urged the public to brace for a continuing volatility in oil prices as suppliers were likely to hoard their stocks to push prices up.

Bautista said oil prices are now being dictated by the ongoing war in Ukraine, the impact of the pandemic and supply chain problems.

“Because we’re just recovering from the pandemic, the production of oil is still slow and there’s a possibility of hoarding by oil producers worldwide,” said Bautista.

“They will hoard to push prices up like what happened in the 1970s,” Bautista said, referring to the global energy crisis when petroleum shortages affected international markets.