Erwin Tulfo urges Congress to fast track revision of Oil Deregulation Law
At A Glance
- Senator Erwin Tulfo on Sunday, April 26 called on Congress to fast track the review and revision of the Oil Deregulation Law, noting that some existing provisions of the are disadvantageious to most Filipinos.
"The government is limited by the law from controlling or dictating oil prices,” Tulfo said.
“Worse, because of the Oil Deregulation Law, the government can only appeal to the oil companies to not hike their prices too much when there are price increases in the global oil prices,” he pointed out.
Earlier, Tulfo co-authored Senate Bill No. 641 or the proposed “Institutionalizing Transparency in the Philippine Downstream Oil Industry” which was filed by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian.
The SB No. 641specifically seeks to review Republic Act No. 8479 known as the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998.
The bill also seeks to unbundle the oil prices of companies so consumer would be able to know the actual justification for the price of fuel.
“Sen. Win and I want to see the unbundled prices of oil companies. How much did they spend to purchase the petroleum products? What are their added costs and how much do they take for profit per liter?” Tulfo remarked.
“Lately, we feel that the petroleum products sold in gasoline stations are overpriced so it is really high time that we have a law that would mandate these companies to reveal their costing of the products being sold to us,” the senator pointed out.
Tulfo said he has been pushing for the measure since his stint as a member of the House of Representatives during the 19th Congress, where he filed House Bill No. 8898 also to repeal the Oil Deregulation Law.
The senator noted that the repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law has always been the appeal of the transport sector.