MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government increased its budget for fuel subsidies to P6.1 billion, from the previous P3 billion, in a bid to help members of the transportation and agriculture sectors cope with the sustained increase in oil prices, according to the energy department.
In a briefing Tuesday, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said that the budget for the Pantawid Pasada Program — which distributes fuel cards to qualified members of the public transport industry — has been doubled to P5 billion, and the fuel discount program for farmers and fisherfolk rose to P1.1 billion.
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"The Pantawid Pasada program had a budget of P2.5 billion but during our [economic] managers' meeting yesterday, we decided to increase it to double the amount of P5 billion. The first tranche will be released this month and the second tranche will be on April," he said in a mix of Filipino and English.
"We also doubled the amount for the fuel discount program for farmers and fisherfolk from P500 million to P1.1 billion. Why did we decide on that? Our economic managers said that this is to account for inflation," Cusi added.
In an exchange with Philstar.com, Cusi said that the government is already in the process of implementing these measures.
Philstar.com reached out the transportation and agriculture departments for confirmation on the figures provided by Cusi, but have not yet received replies from them as of press time.
The Philippines experienced another round of oil price increases this week— the biggest hike to date since the start of the year due to tight oil supply partly driven by the geopolitical war between Ukraine and Russia.
Pump prices rose for the tenth consecutive time this week. Several local oil firms announced that gasoline rose by P3.60 per liter; diesel went up by P5.85 per liter; and that kerosene climbed by P4.10 per liter.
The DOE said there are no issues yet on the supply of oil, as the country still has oil reserves which can last for over 40 days. These reserves are maintained by private firms.
Earlier, Cusi said that the country may "suffer" from higher pump prices if the Ukraine-Russia war persists.
'There's no need to declare economic emergency'
On Tuesday, two DOE officials, including Cusi, said there is no need to declare a state of economic emergency due to the sustained oil price hikes.
"I don't think so. I don't think it is necessary at this point," Cusi said in response to the question.
Meanwhile, Energy Undersecretary Gerardo Erguiza echoed Cusi's statement, adding that the root of the problem lies in the current framework which legislators will need to review.
The agency has been pushing for Congress to review and amend the Oil Deregulation Law, a twenty-four year law that liberalized the oil industry to encourage investments and more participants. Under that law, the government relies on competition to keep prices stable instead of a scrapped stabilization fund.
The DOE has been pushing to amend the law to give them the authority to intervene when there is a spike in global oil prices. They are asking Congress to give them the power to unbundle the cost of petroleum retail products to reflect their true and passed-on charges, among others.
The Philippines has long been an import-dependent country when it comes to oil, since the country does not produce its own.