Marcos awaits emergency powers

NEW YORK — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he will declare as urgent the proposed House bill granting him temporary powers to reduce or suspend the excise tax on fuel once he receives the committee report.

House Speaker Faustino Dy III and House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos filed House Bill 8292 on Monday (Manila time) seeking to amend Section 148 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997. The bill would allow the President to suspend the collection of the excise tax.

Senator Bam Aquino filed Senate Bill 1923 last week containing the same provision.

“There’s no point declaring it as urgent before the committee report has been completed, and that is what I told them, both Houses. Because when you declare a bill as urgent, the shortcuts only begin in the plenary debates,” Marcos said during a press conference on Tuesday in New York.

He explained that declaring the bill as urgent would allow the majority floor leader to read the committee report and move directly to the third reading — a mechanism to fast-track the measure.

“What we are asking is very simple. When the price of oil reaches $80 per barrel on average for a month, then the emergency powers can be exercised. That does not mean that you will necessarily do it, but it can be exercised by the President, that’s all we ask,” he said.

Currently, WTI Crude is trading at $100.9 per barrel and Brent Crude at $102.8 per barrel, well above the $80 threshold for the President to exercise the emergency powers.

Despite rising global prices, Marcos assured that the country’s fuel supply remains stable, even as oil companies implement price hikes effective 10 to 16 March.

“We are also awaiting some supplies that are currently in transit. What I am asking now is to check those that are in transit because they might be in a risky area. But apparently not. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz hasn’t been factored into the calculation so far. That doesn’t mean we are not doing anything. We are exploring alternative sources of supply. We are talking to countries we don’t normally buy oil from. Hopefully, we can make an agreement to get additional supplies from them,” he said.

The President added that the biggest challenge remains the uncertainty surrounding the duration of the Middle East conflict.

“How long will this last? Will the price hikes be permanent? That’s our problem right now. Even JP Morgan, which I have talked to, is analyzing the current flow of the financial market. And they lamented that the hardest part is not knowing how long the situation will last,” he said.

“We don’t know if this war will last, when the actual conflict will end, what it will look like, or how everything will change. Because no matter what happens, the system will change. Those are the unknowns we have to deal with now,” Marcos said.