Fact check: Senatorial bet Robin Padilla's promise of setting up a 'pambansang gasolinahan'

MANILA, Philippines — A former action star running for senator has promised to put up a "national gasoline station" that he claims will have lower pump prices because of tax exemptions.

CLAIM: PDP-Laban senatorial aspirant Robin Padilla vowed to motorcycle riders in the Angkas Safety Fiesta earlier in April that he will put up a "national fuel company" to keep fuel prices lower.

He said the proposal would benefit the transportation sector because the government would not tax that fuel company.

RATING: This is false.

FACTS: Exempting fuel from taxes will require legislation that will have to pass through Congress and be approved by the president.

While that might mean lower pump prices, that would be a blow to the government revenues.

What Padilla said

At the Angkas Safety Fiesta on  April 3, the senatorial candidate was quoted as saying:

Mga ‘tol, isa lang ang ipapangako ko sa inyo. ‘Pag ako pinagkatiwalaan ninyo na mailuklok niyo na maging senador niyo at maging boses niyo, isa lang ‘tol. Gagawa tayo ng pambansang gasolinahan. Ibig sabihin hindi na dapat ‘yan i-tax ng gobyerno. Dapat ang nakikinabang diyan lahat sa transportation business."

Padilla did not elaborate on how he would go about putting up a tax-free national gasoline company. Fuel is subject to value-added taxes and fuel excise taxes.

He went on to claim that multimillionaire owners of buses and taxi companies caused rising prices of gasoline.

Essential context

"Taxes to be collected from fuel have been allocated to the national budget. If you want to cut tax collection, you also need to cut expenditures," Department of Finance Chief Economist Gil Beltran told Philstar.com in an online exchange.

"[The] said revenues are used to fund Pantawid [Pasada], free tertiary public education, university health care, ayuda [and] 'Build, Build, Build'," he added. 

The DOF is not in favor of removing the excise taxes for petroleum products believing that it will result in revenue losses of P131.4 billion in 2022 and limit the country's budget for recovery from the effects of the pandemic.

Several lawmakers and groups have pushed for the suspension of fuel excise taxes which they believed can be a solution to the rising fuel price hikes. 

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said on March 8 that there was no legal obstacle impeding the DOF and Bureau of Internal Revenue from holding off on collecting fuel excise taxes.

Sen. Imee Marcos, who chairs the Senate economic committee, said that fuel subsidies to sectors that need them the most would be a quicker fix.

Why does this matter?

Fuel prices in the Philippines have been increasing since the start of 2022 due to supply issues partly made worse by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

While there were three rounds of rollbacks this year, the price reductions were not enough to offset the increases in local pump prices since the start of the year. 

Fuel prices are felt beyond the pump and affect the prices of basic supplies, goods, and services. 

To woo voters, candidates sometimes offer solutions that sound good but do not give further details like how they plan to fulfill those promises if elected. 

Why did we fact-check this?

The event, which was held in Cainta, Rizal, gathered some 3,000 Angkas bikers.

One video of Padilla's speech which was posted on Facebook has received 10,000 views as of this post. 

Another YouTube video of the same speech has nearly 5,000 views. 

Padilla ranked in the  5th to 9th places in Pulse Asia's latest survey of preferred senatorial candidates   after securing some 47.3% voter support among 2,400 adult respondents.  

— reviewed by Franco Luna 

This story is part of the Philippine Fact-check Incubator, an Internews initiative to build the fact-checking capacity of news organizations in the Philippines and encourage participation in global fact-checking efforts

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