06/04/2026
COLUMN | ๐๐๐ฒ๐น ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐น๐ถ๐ฒ๐ณ, ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ณ ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐น๐ถ๐ฒ๐ณ
by Angel T. Gasing
On Tuesday, March 24, the Paraรฑaque Integrated Terminal Exchange became the backdrop for yet another familiar tradition in Philippine governance: the display of assistance in the midst of a structural crisis. With cameras at hand, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. launched the rollout of a โฑ2.5 billion fuel subsidy program, which doled out โฑ10,000 to bus operators and โฑ5,000 to jeepney and TNVS drivers. It is nothing but a band-aid gesture that ignores the real problem: the government refuses to cut taxes or fix the oil laws that are actually killing the transport sector.
As we enter the first week of April 2026, the transport sector is no longer just teeteringโit is drowning. Following the historic fifth consecutive "big-time" hike implemented on March 31, diesel prices in Metro Manila have now surged to a common price of โฑ132 per liter, with premium variants in the provinces breaching โฑ150. For a modern bus with a 200-liter tank, a single full load now translates to a staggering โฑ26,400. In this brutal reality, a โฑ10,000 subsidy is not just insufficient; it doesn't even cover 40% of one dayโs fuel.
The governmentโs response is a failed policy. Giving out subsidies while the oil market is deregulated is like pouring water into a bucket with no bottom. The state collects our taxes, gives a small portion back to drivers as 'aid,' and then the drivers immediately pay that money to oil companies at the gas station. This isn't helping the people; it is just using public funds to pay the high prices set by private companies. It is a fake solution that does nothing to fix the actual problem.
More importantly, it does not address the overall impacts: the increased costs of transport, the increased cost of logistics, the inflationary burden already bearing down on regular Filipino households. A subsidy may delay the problem, but it cannot cure it.
The real issue is structural. The Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Law, or RA 8479, has long placed limits on how far the government can go in intervening in fuel pricing. This is causing policy imbalance that has become increasingly indefensible in each oil price shock. We regulate how much drivers of public utility vehicles may charge, but we leave fuel prices to a market reality that drivers themselves cannot do anything about and commuters cannot escape from.
Why do we always end up placing the burden of discipline on drivers and commuters, while leaving the pricing power of oil companies untouched?
If the President is serious in his resolve to act on the crisis, then the government needs to look beyond the symbolism of the rollout of subsidies and tackle the policy failure at its root.
The first thing to do in the face of a crisis is to provide immediate relief in terms of scope. The suspension of the 12% VAT and excise tax on fuel should not be left in the realm of debate. In a crisis like this, it should be taken seriously and considered in good faith. The next thing to do would be to make the necessary institutional reforms in the Deregulation Law, build a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and seriously study an Oil Price Stabilization Fund to help cushion us from external shocks. We are a country highly dependent on imported oil; we shouldn't be at the mercy of all the geopolitical tensions in the world.
Subsidies are not meaningless; in times like these, they are even necessary. But they are not a solution, nor are they a strategy. A government that continues to dole out subsidies while the underlying conditions of vulnerability persist is not solving the crisis; it only creates the illusion of solving it while the public continues to suffer.
โฑ2.5 billion may sound like a lot of money, but in the face of a broken energy policy, it is small money spent on a recurring problem. Unless the government fixes the leak in the system itself, these subsidies will remain nothing but expensive gestures, quickly consumed, soon forgotten, and utterly unequal to the burden borne every day by drivers, commuters, and Filipino families.
Digital Illustration by Earl Lawrence Eroy
Layout by Genevev Manlangit
