Loren slams Garin for persistently denying oil crisis despite skyrocketing fuel prices

Senator Loren Legarda on Tuesday took a swipe at Energy Secretary Sharon Garin for downplaying the oil crisis despite persistent soaring prices, arguing that continued denial only discourages line agencies, particularly from acting urgently to preempt the dire effects of the looming fuel supply shortage.

“Let's not get lost in translation or pretend there's no crisis. Until we define it as a crisis, we will not act in record time to save our people,” the visibly irked Legarda said during the first public hearing of the Proactive Response and Oversight for Timely and Effective Crisis Strategy, or PROTECT Committee, formed to discuss government response to the Middle East crisis. 

Legarda’s scathing remarks follow Palace Press Officer Claire Castro’s statement on Monday that the country is not yet in an oil crisis, citing Energy Secretary Sharon Garin, who claimed that the Philippines has an adequate fuel supply until the first week of May. 

Garin has repeatedly asserted that the country has a sufficient fuel buffer despite the global supply disruption, though she acknowledged the price crisis in petroleum products, which she said has been driven by global factors beyond the DOE's and local oil firms' control.

The DOE official also shrugged off the need for the proposed fuel rationing, despite challenges some oil firms face in sourcing a supplier. 

Legarda and several senators, however, did not buy Garin’s alibi, stressing that the DOE must refrain from whitewashing the oil crisis and explicitly admit that it’s already ongoing so that the administration and key agencies could rigorously take preemptive measures to avert the supply depletion.

Until then, they said the departments tasked with providing cash assistance and other forms of subsidies to sectors hard hit by the oil price spike will refrain from being complacent and act with urgency

“If we do not admit that there is a crisis in the Middle East affecting our OFWs and their families, affecting the prices of our petroleum products, energy, food prices, transport, and displacing millions of Filipinos, the agencies will not act with urgency,” she lamented.

“Everybody in government, especially in the executive, must admit on regular times you are slow, painfully slow,” Legarda continued.

She also rebuked Garin’s absence from the hearing, considering the energy department’s pivotal role in ensuring that the country has ample energy and fuel supply amid the oil crisis.

She insinuated that the Energy secretary may be busy politicking.”

“I can’t think of anything more important than this hearing convened by the chair. If the other cabinet members are here, why could the most important department not be present?” 

Garin managed to show up in the hearing, although late, after senators required her attendance following a meeting with President Marcos Jr. in Malacanang earlier in the day.

Panel chair Win Gatchalian and Senator JV Ejercito echoed Legarda’s concern that the Philippines is already facing an oil crisis, with no assurance of how long the supply will last. At the same time, the government has yet to scout for an alternative source aside from the conflict-stricken Middle East, where the country imports about 95-98 percent of its crude oil.

"If the supply is uncertain, even if we have stock on hand [but] we don't know if more will come, for me that's a crisis," he stressed.

Data from the DOE showed that the total available supply of gasoline and diesel can last up to 53.14 days and 45.82 days, respectively, as of 20 March.

Meanwhile, kerosene supplies could last approximately 97.93 days, while jet fuel supplies could last 38.62 days. Fuel oil and LPG stocks are also projected to last about 61.49 days and 23.51 days, respectively.

President Marcos Jr. previously confirmed that the Philippines is currently exploring other countries as possible alternative sources of fuel imports in a bid to secure supply and stabilize prices amid widening disruptions in the Middle East, which have driven up fuel, electricity, water, and transport fares.

This was supported by Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro, who earlier confirmed that the country is considering procuring oil imports from Russia, given the temporarily loosened sanctions by the US against Russian oil.

Ejercito, for his part, lamented the government's purported lack of urgency in forming a crisis committee, established by President Marcos Jr. on Monday, to manage the adverse impacts of the fuel crisis. He pointed out that it should have been created as early as the United States-Israel war on Iran started on 28 February. 

He also took a swipe at the administration for merely giving “false hope” instead of laying out concrete solutions. 

“The ball is in the President’s court already. He now has the power to suspend or reduce the excise tax on oil. The public is already grappling with the high prices of petroleum, especially workers and jeepney drivers,” he stressed. 

Ejercito was referring to the bill granting President Marcos Jr. emergency powers to cut the excise tax on petroleum products to ease the burden on PUV drivers, farmers, and fisherfolk from skyrocketing fuel prices and ensure their continued operations. 

The bill, which Marcos certified as urgent, has yet to be transmitted to Malacanang for Marcos’ approval to become law as of Monday. 

The Chief Executive is adamant about signing the proposed law, unfazed by the threat of an economic slowdown and the projected P121.4 billion in revenue losses, though the shortfall could reach as high as P136 billion if coupled with the proposed suspension of the value-added tax.