Four bills
While Roxas has kept himself satisfied with SB 1726, militant lawmakers belonging to Bayan Muna (People First), Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) and Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) last year filed four separate bills that address comprehensively the issues and concerns on rising prices of oil products and the oil industry in general.
In his 15-minute PowerPoint presentation, Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño said he and Reps. Satur Ocampo (Bayan Muna), Crispin Beltran (Anakpawis), Liza Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan (both of GWP) last year filed four house bills aimed to stop the transnational plunder and exploitation of the cartel in the oil industry.
The first bill filed was House Bill No. 1724, repealing Republic Act No. 8479 which is otherwise known as the Downstream Oil Deregulation Act of 1998. Under the bill, the repeal of the oil deregulation law would be followed by immediate steps such as the reversal of the privatization of Petron, centralized procurement and the establishment of a buffer fund in connection with the institution of price controls on petroleum products and the funds would be used to mitigate the impact of sudden price hikes and replenish using earnings from its centralized procurement, refining and retailing operations.
On Nov. 6, 2007, the militant party list lawmakers filed the other three bills, namely HB 3029 known as an Act Regulating the Downstream Petroleum Industry and For Other Related Purposes that would lead to the creation of Petroleum Regulatory Council and the establishment of the Oil Price Buffer Fund, HB 3030, an Act Instituting Centralized Procurement of Petroleum in the Country that would lead to the establishment of Philippine National Oil Company-National Petroleum Exchange.
The PNOC-National Petroleum Exchange would assure that the indigenous petroleum and petroleum-based resources shall be primarily for the benefit of the general welfare, as well as proper, adequate and continuous supply of crude oil and refined petroleum products under the most economic and competitive terms possible considering all available sources of supply, while assuring the public of reasonable prices, preventing monopolies from exploiting the people and minimize cost and outflow of foreign exchange involved in the operations of oil industry.
Meanwhile, HB 3031 or an Act Rationalizing Petron Corporation is meant for the full-blown nationalization of Petron to effectively and decisively control and stop the oil cartel and monopoly pricing.
“We expect a major political battle royale with these pro-people four bills in Congress, so we should rally the people behind these bills authored and dictated by the people’s interest and welfare,” Casiño said.
Fisherfolk
Meanwhile, around 710,000 out of 1.3 million small fisherfolk or nearly 55 percent of the Filipino fisherfolk are severely affected by soaring prices of petroleum products, according to the militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya or National Federation of Small Fisherfolk Organizations).
