SB1984 - AN ACT REPEALING REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8479 OR THE DOWNSTREAM OIL INDUSTRY DEREGULATION ACT OF 1998

EXPLANATORY NOTE Since 1998, I did not vote for the passing of the Oil Deregulation Law and in 2022, I pushed for the review of this particular law. RA 8479 liberalized and deregulated the downstream oil industry, intended to ensure true competitive pricing among players in the local oil industry. It allowed the local oil industry players to adjust the prices of gasoline, diesel, kerosene every week. Prior to RA 8479, the Energy Regulatory Board considered the dollar cost of imported crude oil and the foreign exchange rate, and fixed prices of petroleum products. A budgetary allocation maintained by the national government called the Oil Price Stabilization Fund (OPSF) automatically absorbed any price change incurred by the oil companies in importing crude oil, which is not reflected in the selling price.1 It is high time to give back to the state the authority to manage fuel prices. Now that our petroleum prices are directly impacted by the geopolitical tension in the Middle East, transparency, scrutiny and uniformity in pricing are needed more than ever. In view thereof, immediate approval of this bill is requested. For further reading: https://senate.gov.ph/legislative-documents/bills/622722?documentType=Bill&congress=20th+Congress https://senate.gov.ph/legacy/lis_bills/4942245320!.pdf

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