Romualdez: Gov’t, oil firm execs to find solutions to rising petroleum products

House Speaker Martin Romualdez | PHOTO: Official website of the House of Representatives / congress.gov.ph

MANILA, Philippines — Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez vowed to propose solutions that will help solve the country’s problem with oil price hikes in a scheduled consultative meeting with big oil players on Monday.

In a statement on Sunday, the House Speaker said that the government can “compromise” by offering a review of the excise tax on oil and petroleum products.

“On our part in the government, we can compromise … perhaps what we can initially offer is a possible review of excise tax or value-added tax on oil and petroleum products. This is a good place to start,” he said, adding that the solution may come from oil companies and government agencies’ cooperation.

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Among the measures that he plans to lay out are the possibility of suspending the collection of excise taxes and convincing manufacturers to postpone the imposition of higher prices on basic food commodities as a result of soaring oil prices.

Romualdez said that the expected guests of the meeting are leaders of the House Committee on Energy and Department of Energy officials.

Officials from private companies were also invited to attend the discussion to be held at the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City.

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Participants include Mia Delos Reyes of Petron Corporation, Timothy James Laurel of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Tanya Samillano, and Romina Antonio of the Independent Philippine Petroleum Companies Association, and representatives from Chevron Philippines, Inc., Philippine Institute of Petroleum, Flying V, and Total Philippines Corp.

“We will try to find a win-win solution for our people and, of course, those in the oil industry,” he said.

“We want to sit down with these oil companies and discuss ways or suggestions on how we can alleviate the hardships of our fellow countrymen due to the constant rise in petroleum prices, and find common ground in areas that are within our control,” Romualdez noted.