New bill wants PH gov't to retake control of fuel prices

House Deputy Majority Leader and Partylist representative, Erwin Tulfo, has filed House Bill (HB) 8898 to scrap Republic Act (RA) 8479 or the Oil Deregulation Law. HB 8898 also calls for the establishment of an oil price stabilization fund to be administered by the Office of the President.

In his explanatory note, Rep. Tulfo of ACT-CIS said that while RA 8479 of 1998 was designed to promote competition, transparency, and affordability within the local oil market, that didn’t happen and fuel prices as we know – continue to skyrocket due to a lot of factors.

Tulfo also added that HB 8898 seeks to reestablish government control of fuel pump prices and to “address the negative impact of frequent and abrupt fuel price changes on consumers.”

Key points of HB 8898

There are actually two key points of the proposed HB 8898 or the BBMP Act of 2023. First, the proposed law wants to establish a Budget ng Bayan para sa Murang Petrolyo. They really wanted it to spell out as BBMP.

If passed, the BBMP will act as an oil price stabilization fund which shall be used to reimburse oil companies for the cost increases of imported crude oil and finished fuel products resulting from exchange rate adjustments, increases in world market prices of crude oil, etc.

The BBMP will be handled by the Office of the President and will be subject to the scrutiny of the Commission on Audit (COA). The BBMP will be appropriated with a PHP 10 billion budget.

The second point is that under Section 7 of the proposed law, RA 8479 or the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998 (aka Oil Deregulation Law), and all other laws, decrees, orders, rules and regulations, and other issuances that are tied with the said law, will be repealed completely.

Is this a sustainable solution to stabilizing fuel prices for us? Let us know what you think.