While Filipinos still wait in vain for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to release the Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI) flood-control report — the very document that could nail those responsible for billions in wasted infrastructure funds — the Palace has quietly broken another solemn pledge that hits every household far more directly. The removal of excise taxes on fuel to ease the crushing burden of sky-high prices was vowed if global oil shocks worsen.

Marcos said his administration would move swiftly to scrap the levy that artificially inflates pump prices. The measure will ease the daily pain of commuters, farmers, fishermen and small-business owners who bear the full brunt of every peso added to diesel and gasoline prices.

As of Easter, with oil prices spiking due to the Iran conflict and domestic pump rates climbing relentlessly, that relief remains locked away in the same Palace vault that holds the ICI report.

While an executive order was signed, there was no indication of what steps the President will take on the fuel tax when it takes effect in the middle of the month. There was no sense of urgency whatsoever.

It cannot be attributed to oversight and the indifference is so blatant. Every day the excise tax stays in place, the cost of living climbs for millions who can least afford it.

Jeepney drivers — the most affected among public utility drivers, as their vehicles run on diesel, whose prices have skyrocketed — pay more per kilometer, forcing thinner margins.

Farmers watch their irrigation and transport costs devour whatever little profit they squeeze from the land. Fishermen stay ashore because diesel has become a luxury. Groceries, fares and basic goods all carry the hidden tax of higher fuel prices.

The ripple effect is merciless as inflation bites harder, wages buy less and the poor are told, once again, to tighten their belts while the powerful deliberate.

Contrast this paralysis with the ICI saga. Malacañang holds the independent body’s report but has done nothing.

The power to suspend or remove the excise tax now rests squarely with the executive. Yet the Palace chooses silence and delay, the same silence it deploys to bury the flood probe.

Where is the compassion? The same administration that lectures the nation about “good governance” and “caring for the people” cannot find the political will to deliver P10 to P15 per liter in immediate relief to the very citizens drowning in fuel costs.

While P41 million was spent on an ICI that was deliberately neutered and then ignored, not a single decisive peso has been carved from the fuel-tax burden that strikes every Filipino family daily.

The message from Malacañang is now unmistakable: accountability can be postponed and relief can be deferred, because the welfare of ordinary Filipinos ranks below the convenience of the powerful.

Promises of transparency on flood anomalies and relief from fuel taxes have both withered under the same roof. The lack of urgency is staggering; the absence of compassion, unforgivable.

Remove the excise tax on fuel and release the ICI report.

Filipinos are not asking for miracles; they are demanding the bare minimum their government promised: the truth about stolen flood-control funds and real relief from the daily tax of survival.

Anything less is contempt masquerading as leadership.