Just two months since New Year, pump prices increased nine times, more than seven pesos per liter on both diesel and gasoline. 2021 Since last year, gasoline prices went up P17.65/L, while diesel added P14.30/L and kerosene also up by P11.45/L.
DOE attributes this to OPEC’s low production and the Ukraine Russia war that catapulted Dubai crude oil prices to an unprecedented $92-93 per barrel with great possibility to hit $100 in the next months.
This is already 12 dollars above our TRAIN law’s $80 benchmark upon which excise taxes are automatically suspended, but on the unbelievable condition that the breach must last for three months before it becomes effective.
I’m sure that millions will be pushed below poverty line if government opts to wait for three months of super high pump prices and expected increases in basic food items, utilities and services. Why did this administration become so insensitive?
For the record, government collects almost P18 for every liter of oil products from its 12 percent Value Added Tax (12 percent) and excise taxes (P10 for gasoline and P6 for diesel). As a matter fact, government even earns more than all the oil companies combined.
And as we all suffer, it is becoming clear that the Department of Energy (DOE) chose to wait three months, hoping against hope that the high Dubai Crude prices will go back to below $80/L .
Of course, government officials can do something now, if they really really want to help the people. The TRAIN Law has accumulated billions of oil taxes since 2018 and it is more than capable to plow back funds and give relief today to our suffering people. But sadly, it is not happening.
There was a Supreme Court decision in 2019, Maynilad, Manila Water vs. DENR which gives all of us the stark reality. It says, “Filipino consumers have become such persons of disability deserving protection from the State, as their welfare are increasingly downplayed, endangered and overwhelmed by the excesses of private business as well as that of the State”.
Backfiring election campaign slogans
Almost all candidates for local and national posts are claiming to run on a platform of good governance while professing to end corruption.
The anti-corruption mantra has become such an old, worn-out refrain that it has lost its luster among voters. Ordinary folk like our village street sweepers, jeepney drivers and even my own barber are unanimous in their belief that anti-corruption calls are just empty promises. “Pare-pareho lang naman silang corrupt (All of them are corrupt anyway),” they would say in reference to our crop of present and aspiring leaders.
Thus, campaign catchphrases like JV Ejercito’s “The Good One” – a play of words that could either mean “good” as in “competent” or “good” as the opposite of “bad” – is again treading on thin ice. Moreover, voters, after all, are not easily swayed and are, in fact, suspicious of a candidate’s self-serving claims of a clean public record. We are seeing this again in TV and street ads, even if the slogan already backfired in 2019 when he and half-brother candidate, Jinggoy Estrada, finished outside of the winning circle.
Frankly, this loss will be repeated on May 9 since voters know that true leadership cannot be victory at all costs–at the expense of another–more so, a relative. This campaign slogan is winning without honor, obviously the direct path to failure.