ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo (Facebook)

Oil companies made numerous requests to House Speaker Martin Romualdez but offered nothing concrete in return during their consultative meeting Monday, Sept. 18 on the fuel price surge problem.

Thus, said House Deputy Majority Leader ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo as he bared that there will be a "second round" of talks between the House officials and the oil industry players, possibly next week.

At around 3 p.m. Monday, Romualdez and the representatives from the different companies took part in face-to-face meeting at Batasan Complex in Quezon City. Tulfo was among the House members in attendance.

"Yung request ng mga oil players is like the usual [removal of] excise tax, tapos yung bioethanol (The oil players' requests have to do with the removal of excise tax, and about bioethanol)," Tulfo said in a press conference.

"Medyo mabigat daw yung bioethanol na mini-mix sa gas natin ngayon, sa oil, mabigat daw yun. Ma-ease up lang, kasi parang they're required ata to..purchase dito sa local companies, it's very expensive (The requirement to mix bioethanol with gas is a difficult requirement. They want to ease it up, this requirement to purchase from local companies, it's very expensive)," he said.

"So unlike yung mga imported na bioethanol, mas mura. Tsaka may sinasabi pa silang marker, fuel marker. So yun yung mga request nila (Imported bioethanol is much cheaper. They also mentioned something about fuel market. So those are their requests)," noted Tulfo.

"But then the Speaker said, 'You've been asking for a lot di ba, so what can you give us naman?...Pero what can you offer us?' Wala silang masagot. So may round two, may second round na meeting (They couldn't give an answer. So there will be a round two, a second round to the meeting)," narrated the ACT-CIS solon.

Tulfo said the oil firm representatives will essentially relay to their bosses and chief executive officers (CEOs) the Speaker’s request and what then asked them what form of relief they can offer to consumers.

Over the weekend, Romualdez said that he wanted to convince the local oil firms to defer all upcoming pump price hikes until after Christmas.

The big-time fuel price hike Tuesday, Sept. 19 showed that the Speaker hasn't succeeded--at least not yet--as he chose to wait on the oil firms to commit to a compromise for the sake of Filipinos.

Pump fuel prices have increased at least 11 times in as many weeks.

Tulfo said that the emissaries sent by the oil companies to the meeting weren't "decision-makers".

"They will be back, we're expecting that they will be consulting this, bringing this, yung request ng Congress, ni Speaker Romualdez, sa kanilang mga principals (the request of Congress, the request of Speaker Romualdez, to their principals)," the deputy majority leader said.

Romualdez, leader of the 311-member House of Representatives, has said that he want a win-win solution for both the oil firms and consumers.

The meeting also included Department of Energy (DOE) officials led by Undersecretary Sharon Garin, as well as representatives from the oil industry players such as the Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Independent Philippine Petroleum Companies Association, as well as officials from Chevron Philippines Inc., Philippine Institute of Petroleum, Flying V, and Total Philippines Corp.